Arrest made in shooting of a student at Miami Northwestern, authorities say

Police detained a Miami-Dade public school student Friday evening after a student was shot multiple times at Miami Northwestern Senior High following a boys’ basketball game the night before at the school, school district officials said.

The identity of the detained student has not been released; the student who was shot remained in critical condition Friday evening at Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Neither police nor the school district have identified the person brought into custody, nor the student who was shot.

The shooting followed a varsity boys basketball game at the school against Miami Northwestern’s longtime rival, Miami Central High. The Bulls defeated the Central Rockets, 66-63. The schools are about two miles away from each other.

Around 10:15 p.m. Thursday, paramedics rushed to Miami Northwestern, 1100 NW 71st St., in response to a shooting, Lt. Pete Sanchez, a Miami Fire Rescue spokesman, told the Herald. There, they found a student with multiple gunshot wounds.

Paramedics transported him to Ryder in critical condition, Sanchez said. Authorities have not identified what school he attended.

Gabrielle Acosta, a school district spokeswoman, told the Herald that the boy who was shot is a student at a Miami-Dade public school. She declined to say whether he attended Miami Northwestern, citing a federal student privacy law.

“It was one of our students,” Acosta said. “There is more police presence at the school today as a precaution because it is an active investigation.”

As dismissal time approached Friday at Miami Northwestern, scores of Miami and Miami-Dade Public Schools police officers patrolled the school’s outer perimeter and some exits were blocked, forcing students to leave from only a few doors.

John Pierre, a Miami Northwestern sophomore, said he was at the game but left a few minutes before shots rang out. When he heard what happened, his mind was racing.

But a day later, he said he wasn’t scared.

“I still feel safe at school because security is perfect,” he said. “It is what it is.”

Parents, meanwhile, were much more concerned.

“A lot of things happen in the inside of those hallways,” said Carolyn Reddick, the mother of a senior.

Fights and altercations on and off school grounds have made her son feel unsafe, she said, noting that he no longer walks home from school. She picks up him every day immediately after school.

“I feel like I’m stuck in a bad situation here because he is so close to graduating, and it is so hard to move schools, “ she said. ”As soon as school goes out, he wants to be home.”

Bre A., the mother of a sophomore, was devastated to hear what happened.

“I feel like kids should be able to go out and enjoy themselves and have fun,” she said. “It sucks that they can’t do that.”

While she agrees with Reddick that more security is needed, too many officers or guards could be a detriment to the children, fearing students will worry something is going to happen.

She said the shooting is not as much as a school issue, but a community one.

“I feel like sometimes we have to come together as a community to get these kids on the right track and interact with each other,” she said.

Miami Herald staff sports writer Andre Fernandez contributed to this report.