Teen critical after LA school shooting, student arrested

LOS ANGELES — A girl believed to be 12 years old opened fire Thursday in a middle school classroom, critically wounding one classmate and injuring three others, authorities said.

Police arrested the girl and recovered a gun after the shooting that happened just before 9 a.m. at Salvador B. Castro Middle School near downtown, said Steve Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles Unified School District police force. A possible motive was not identified as the investigation was in its early stages.

News footage showed a dark-haired girl in a sweatshirt being led from the school in handcuffs as anxious parents gathered on a street corner, talking on their phones and awaiting word about their children.

“I’m just hoping it has nothing to do with him,” said Gloria Echeverria, as she waited for news about her 13-year-old son. “I’m just scared for all the kids — school is supposed to be a safe place for them, and apparently it’s not.”

Melanie Valencia, 13, said the school did a random security search Thursday, but she’s never been searched.

“It’s crazy because I don’t know how she got the gun,” she said.

The most seriously injured victim, a 15-year-old boy shot in the head, was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and remained in intensive care during the afternoon but was doing well.

A 15-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the wrist was hospitalized in fair condition. An 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were grazed and were treated and released. A 30-year-old woman injured was not hospitalized.