Staff member shot at Douglass High School
Suspect is in custody, officials say; no students were injured
Gunfire erupted Friday in the lobby of Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, a rare incident inside city schools, leaving a 56-year-old staff member seriously injured and a 25-year-old man in police custody..
The 25-year-old entered the school shortly after noon and shot a special education assistant, police said. The staff member, identified by district officials as Michael Marks, is in serious but stable condition and undergoing treatment at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The alleged shooter is a family member of a Douglass student, police said.
No students were injured during the incident.
“In a city where violence is too present, our schools must be havens of safety and peace, where confrontation and weapons have no place,” schools CEOSonja Santelises said. “I can tell you that both our officers and our injured staff member did everything to ensure the safety of our students.”
After entering the school through its front entrance, the manwas quickly confronted by Marks, who was originally identified by officials as a hall monitor. The man then shot Marks in the lower torso, police said. The incident was isolated to the school’s lobby, though some students heard the shots ring out.
Marks “has served Baltimore’s students for manyyears, and I ask you all as part of our City Schools community to hold him and his family in your hearts,” Santelises said in a message to families.
School police responded and took the man into custody “without incident,” school police chief Akil Hamm said.
Police and district leadership responded to the school, across Gwynns Falls Parkway from Mondawmin Mall. The school was placed on lockdown, with students confined to classrooms.
Jesse Schneiderman, a Douglass teacher, tweeted that his class was “locked down, but safe. Will update with what I know. ... Kids are hanging out in my room with lights off still. Kids are aggravated and seem nervous, but we’re okay. Right now we’re just waiting on information.”
Amira Toms, a 17-year-old junior, said she was practicing drills with the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps when her instructor ran into the room and told students someone was shooting outside. “It was scary. I never had this happen to me before,” Toms said. “I seen it happen to a lot of places, but I never thought it would be our school.”
Freshman Keiron Slay, 14, said he was in a hallway of the school when the shooting happened. “That’s when I heard a lot of screaming,” he said. When he and a friend went up a set of stairs to investigate the commotion, he said they saw a group of people running toward them. He ran too, and ducked into a nearby classroom, where he said some students attempted to climb out a window.
Students said the school was on lockdown for about an hour. “It felt like it was longer,” said Jalen Reaves, a 15-year-old freshman.
The school dismissed at 1:15 p.m. “to enable the police investigation,” according to the school system.
Mayor Catherine Pugh issued a statement Friday evening on her Twitter account calling the incident “totally unacceptable” and saying that “police investigators are working to determine not only the circumstances which led to this incident but how a person with a gun was allowed to enter the school.”
“Our schools need to be safe havens where our children can learn and achieve the potential,” she said.
School shootings are rare in Baltimore, where many students look to their classrooms as a refuge from the frequent gun violence on the city’s streets.
In 2004, two brothers were shot outside Thurgood Marshall High School just after the school day ended. Their wounds were not life-threatening. Three years earlier, a student was fatally shot outside Lake Clifton-Eastern High School right before classes began. The most recent fatal incident within a school building was in 2015, when a 17-year-old student was stabbed in a classroom inside Renaissance Academy and later died of his injuries.
Sgt. Clyde Boatwright, president of the school police union, praised the officers’ quick actions Friday and credited them for containing a dangerous situation.
But, he said, the shooting fuels his argument that all school police officers in Baltimore should be allowed to carry their service weapons while on the job.
Last month, the Baltimore school board unanimously voted to oppose a measure that would have allowed school police officers to carry weapons during the day. Under current law, city schools police officers are allowed to carry their guns while patrolling the exterior of school buildings before and after school hours. But they are required to store their weapons in a secure location during the day.
“We predicted that this would happen, that an outsider would come into a school and produce a handgun and shoot a staff member or student,” Boatwright said. “I wonder how that 10-0 vote feels now?”
On Friday, the police officer assigned to Douglass was unarmed as usual, Boatwright said. But the officer happened to be joined by two other officers — his area supervisors — who were carrying their weapons and attending a conference.
“They heard the gunshots and the three of them ran to the location and physically fought the suspect in order to get the gun from him and take him into custody,” Boatwright said. “It was just by chance, thankfully, that these supervisors were there. If they weren’t, there would have been no good guy with the tools available to stop the threat.”
School board chair Cheryl Casciani said she would not comment until she had a more complete picture of what happened Friday.
Baltimore Teachers Union president Marietta English was finishing up in a meeting of the School Safety Task Force when she heard the news. She immediately rushed to Douglass. “It’s ironic,” English said. “It’s just so unfortunate that this happened, anywhere, anyplace, anytime.”
Santelises pledged a review of safety and security protocols at Douglass and all schools. “My highest priority is the safety and well-being of our students and staff members,” she said, “and I and my leadership team will take all possible steps to ensure that our schools are the safe havens they need to be.”