Student killed and another arrested after a shooting at a high school in Texas

An 18-year-old student was killed and another student arrested following a shooting Wednesday afternoon at Bowie High School in Arlington.

Arlington Police Chief Al Jones and Arlington Independent School District Superintendent Matt Smith held a news conference Wednesday evening to provide an update on the shooting, which was confirmed to be a homicide.

According to authorities, officers responded to the high school just before 3 p.m. after reports of shots being fired near a portable building on campus. School resource officers said once they arrived at the scene, they found the 18-year-old lying on the ground.

First responders said he had been shot up to six times and was unresponsive.

As a result of the shooting, the campus was forced into lockdown. Video obtained by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth showed police officers providing CPR to a person on the ground outside the school.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Arlington Police said officers helped secure the vicinity of the campus and started searching for the suspect, 17, who was eventually found nearby.

He was taken into custody without incident sometime around 5:30 p.m. and booked into Arlington City Jail on a charge of murder, police said. His name has not been released.

Homicide detectives believe the suspect and the victim knew each other, and they are still working to find out the motive behind the deadly incident. Investigators are also working to determine what kind of gun was used in the shooting, where the suspect obtained it, and if the weapon was ever taken inside school buildings.

“We, as a community, cannot tolerate this kind of violence. Not in our neighborhoods and not in our schools. Violence is never the right answer. We will continue to work in lockstep with our partners at Arlington ISD to ensure our schools are safe spaces where students can learn,” Jones said in a released statement.

'I don’t know how we proceed from this point'

Erica Sims, whose son and daughter attend the school, said her son left campus before noon and that her daughter was still in the building when the shooting took place. She said she first went to the school and then drove around the neighborhood before being redirected to a reunification center.

“I got a call from my daughter, she told me there had been a shooting at the school. I panicked, of course. I’ve been trying to find my child and still have not been able to get her,” Sims said. “My daughter knows the child who was shot. My daughter knows the child who did the shooting.

She added: "It’s a lot. I don’t feel safe. I don’t know how we proceed from this point. I’ve never been involved in something like this and I just want my child.”

Other anxious parents outside the district’s aquatic center said all they could do was wait for their children to be bussed from the school.

“When I get a text like that … and I can’t get into the school … I’m a vet, I want to get there and make sure everybody’s squared away but they’ve got our hands tied with what we can do,” parent Terry Brown said. “It’s a terrible thing. I feel for that young person’s family.”

In tears, Desiree Mondy said her son, who is a junior at the school, texted her saying students heard multiple gunshots and screaming outside the building.

“Our kids are not safe,” Mondy said. “He’s afraid, even though this is routine, he is afraid. But he knows what to do like this is a common practice and that’s a problem. His text was, ‘Oh mom, we’re on lockdown,’ because this is what they do all the time. Until a friend sent him a text message confirming there were shots fired and there were screams, that’s when I could tell he was terrified.”

Andrew Oliveros, a former Bowie student, said his sister was inside the building when the shooting took place but was thankfully far away from the gunfire.

“It’s sad. It sucks because it’s preventable. It’s avoidable,” said Oliveros. “I feel like there’s not enough done or said to prevent things like this. I’ve gone to this high school all four years and it’s not the first time this has happened.”

Demitri McGary said his younger sister was at the school when the shooting took place and that she was OK. He said he hadn’t talked to his sister about the possibility of a shooting at school, but felt there was little you could do to prepare.

“Nobody can be prepared for situations like this. There’s really nothing you can do besides make sure they know how to handle themselves in that moment. Not to panic, to keep their composure. Make sure you can think straight,” McGary said.

When asked how he’d feel seeing his sister after the shooting, McGary said because he knows she’s OK, it’d probably be like most any other day.

“I know she’s all right, so, I guess it’ll be like picking her up, you know? ‘Something happened at school today.’ It’s a little crazy, but, it happens a lot unfortunately in this world,” McGary said.

Classes canceled Thursday

The district announced that classes at Bowie High School would be canceled Thursday. When students return to school, they will have the full support of the district’s counseling team for as long as needed, according to the district.

The superintendent said that the district also planned to conduct a review of the campus’ safety measures in the coming days.

“Any time you have a school tragedy we would always do something like that,” Smith said. “At this time right now, we’re just gathering information along with the police department and supporting them in the investigation.”

Some parents who gathered outside the school during the lockdown expressed concern that they were first notified by their students inside the classroom, not by the district.

The superintendent said that the district would conduct a review of the communication process used to alert families of the lockdown.

“We know that with students with cellphones and social media, word from students travels extremely fast,” Smith said. “As soon as we got the right information, we pushed it out to our families.”