Student dies after fight ends in gunfire at North Carolina school

A North Carolina high school student shot and killed a fellow student during a fight in a crowded school hallway Monday, officials said, calling the incident a case of bullying that “escalated out of control” which had students scurrying to escape and parents rushing to campus to check on their children.

The student accused of firing the fatal shot was arrested quickly as investigators secured the campus at Butler High School in Matthews, about 12 miles southeast of downtown Charlotte. Matthews Police Department Capt. Stason Tyrrell identified the suspect at a news conference as Jatwan Craig Cuffie, a 16-yearold ninth-grader. He is charged as an adult with first-degree murder and is being held in the Mecklenburg County jail. Online records don’t indicate whether he has an attorney who could comment.

Tyrrell identified the victim as Bobby McKeithen, 16, a 10th-grader at Butler.

Students remained inside with the school on lockdown for about two hours after the shooting.

According to Tyrrell, a school resource officer was in the school cafeteria at 7:14 a.m. when he and security officers heard a commotion and encountered students running in an adjacent hallway. Tyrrell said the resource officer encountered the victim, tried to give aid and called for a school lockdown.

Within five minutes, a teacher notified school officials that she was with the student who committed the shooting, Tyrrell said, adding that the teacher said the student admitted to the shooting and was ready to surrender.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said the shooting appears to have stemmed from a case of bullying “that escalated out of control.” Neither Wilcox nor Tyrrell said which student was being bullied. Tyrrell said several people apparently knew there would be an altercation at the school, but police had no information on it prior to the incident.