Shot youth staggered down hallway
BRAMPTON SCHOOL SHOOTING : After student hit in parking lot, 1,700 locked inside Chinguacousy Secondary for 21⁄ hours 2
An 18- year- old student was shot yesterday outside his Brampton high school, prompting a lockdown for 1,700 students. The victim, who other students identified by his first name “ Shandie,” was sitting inside his car in the parking lot just before classes began when a man with a small- calibre handgun fired several shots into the driver’s side.
“ We believe he was targeted,” Peel Region police Constable Kathy Weylie said.
However, Weylie wouldn’t say whether police know the motive for the shooting at Chinguacousy Secondary School or the identity of the gunman, who fled on foot. A friend who was sitting in the front passenger seat was not injured. The victim, in Grade 12 at the school on Williams Parkway and Bramalea Rd., was taken to William Osler Health Centre.
“ It is a fairly serious wound that he has,” Weylie said, although she could not provide details. Police won’t identify the victim or his passenger. They say the assailant was 18, about 5foot- 8 and was wearing a black hooded top and blue jeans. The teen’s mother and other relatives maintained a vigil inside the hospital’s emergency unit as doctors repaired his wound. They wouldn’t give their names.
“ He’s a good kid, a good student,” the wounded teen’s uncle told the Toronto Star as he hustled into the hospital to see his nephew. “ We’re still trying to figure out what happened.” Grade 11 student Jelisa Arthey said she saw the shot teen staggering into the school about 8 a. m., moments after being shot.
“ He was coming down the hall and I said ‘ hi Shandie,’ but he didn’t answer. He was holding his hand against his stomach. He went to the office, then he was taken away by ambulance,” Arthey said.
“ He’s the nicest guy. Of all the people in this school, I don’t know why he got shot. He has lots of friends. I don’t know anybody who hates him.”
Jerica Rowsell, a Grade 12 student, said: “ I’m so surprised it happened here because this is such a good school. There’s hardly any fights — the kids are really good.” Rowsell had arrived for second period and couldn’t get in because of the lockdown.
Other students said there are no problems with guns or gangs at the school.
Principal Carol Speers ordered the school into lockdown mode — all students were locked inside their classrooms with the lights turned off to make it difficult for any potential gunman to choose targets through the win-
dows. The police tactical squad checked the school as a precaution, but the gunman was never believed to be inside, police said.
“ This morning before school started there was an incident with one of our students in the parking lot involving a gun.
“ The student is fine and he is now at the hospital. I want to assure all of you that the school is safe,” Speers announced over the intercom as the lockdown began.
Speers also praised the students for their co- operation and good behaviour throughout the incident that lasted until 10: 30 a. m. Classes resumed as usual for the rest of the day.
Peel District School Board spokesman Brian Woodland said 10 other schools in the area were locked to outsiders, but not in full lockdown mode, until 10 a. m. as an added precaution. Reports of the lockdown prompted some worried parents to drive to the school and wait outside, but many were able to talk to their kids on cell phones and heard they were okay. Extra staff were assigned to answer calls from parents. Brian Barber, whose son Christopher is in Grade 11, was one of those waiting outside the school in a steady drizzle during the lockdown, but was reassured when he reached his son by cellphone. “He just knew they were in lockdown and had no idea what was going on,” Barber said.