Central High pupils to return after gunfire

Central High School students are set to return to in-person classes today after gunshots near the campus led to a lockdown and early dismissal Tuesday.

Students attended classes virtually Wednesday while Little Rock police gathered evidence from the campus as part of the investigation.

Principal Nancy Rousseau wrote in an email Wednesday afternoon that police had finished the evidence-gathering process and that the two places where bullets struck the school building had been repaired.

Little Rock Police Department spokesman Mark Edwards could not provide any further information about the investigation Wednesday.

Rousseau reiterated that counselors would be available to speak with students in the wake of the incident, calling it “unsettling.”

Police do not believe the school or students were targeted, and no one was injured.

In a statement Wednesday, Little Rock School District officials asked parents to remind their students to use social media responsibly after rumors spread during and after Tuesday’s lockdown.

“Misinformation and fake, photoshopped images presented challenges” to school officials trying to communicate with students and parents, the statement said, seeming to refer — at least in part — to a photo that circulated on social media Tuesday purporting to show a student lying injured outside the school. Rousseau has dismissed the photo as “bogus.”

The statement again stressed that there was not an active shooter on the campus.

Shortly before noon Tuesday, someone fired at least 10 shots near the intersection of 17th and Dennison streets, about two blocks south of Central High, based on shell casings at the crime scene.

One bullet broke the window of a classroom with students inside, and another struck a wall near students eating lunch outside, Little Rock School District Superintendent Michael Poore confirmed Tuesday.

Police have not identified a suspect, although Chief Keith Humphrey said Tuesday afternoon that investigators thought they had a description of a vehicle that was involved.