Police arrest 12-year-old girl in school shooting

LOSANGELES » Ashooting at a Los Angelesmiddle school classroom Thursday that left one boy in critical condition, injured four others and had panicked parents in tears was an accident, police said.

The shootingwas reported just before 9 a.m. and within minutes a 12-year-oldgirlwas taken into custody without incident. Police interviewed her and by evening they announced that they would book her on a charge of negligent discharge of a firearm on school grounds.

The determination capped a frantic day at Salvador B. Castro Middle School in downtown Los Angeles and corroborated what some students told reporters after the lockdown was lifted and they were reunited with parents on the school’s athletic field.

In a telephone interview with his mother alongside, Jordan Valenzuela, 12, told The Associated Press hewas in the classroom next door when he heard a loud bang. He said he talked to the girl just after the shooting and she was sobbing.

“She was like, ‘I didn’t meanto. I had thegun inmy backpack and I didn’t know it was loaded andmy backpack fell and the gun went off,’ ” he said.

Shortly after that he said the girl asked him to hide the weapon.

“She said, ‘If I give you the gunwill you hide it forme?’ ” he said. “I said ‘No.’ Then I moved away from her because Iwas a little bit scared.”

Shallin Lopez, a seventhgrader at the school, was in the room at the time of the shooting. She said she never saw a gun. “I just saw something pop,” she said. “It was loud. I didn’t see her shoot.”

Police recovered a semiautomatic handgun after the shooting. TV video from helicopters showed a darkhaired girl in a sweatshirt being led from the school in handcuffs as anxious parents and family members gathered on a street corner, many crying and talking on their phones as they waited.

The most seriously injured victim, a 15- yearold 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.

The school’s campus was placed on lockdown but most classes continued. The schoolhas about 365 students in grades 6-8 and almost all are Hispanic and many are from low-income families.