Md. student shoots 2 at high school
Gunman dies in shootout
GREAT MILLS, Md. — A teenager with a handgun shot two classmates inside his Maryland high school yesterday before he was fatally wounded during a confrontation with a school resource officer, a sheriff said.
The officer and the student both fired a single shot at that point, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether he took his own life or was killed by the officer’s bullet, St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron said. The other students — a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy — were hospitalized, the girl with life-threatening injuries. The officer, who doubles as a SWAT team member, was unharmed.
“When the shooting took place, our school resource officer, who was stationed inside the school, was alerted to the event and the shots being fired,” Cameron said. “He pursued the shooter and engaged the shooter, during which that engagement he fired a round at the shooter.”
The shooter was identified as Austin Rollins, 17. His motive wasn’t immediately clear.
“There is an indication that a prior relationship existed between the shooter and the female victim, the sheriff said.
Agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined deputies at Great Mills High School as students endured a lengthy lockdown, cowering inside classrooms and a locker room while officers worked to make sure there were no more threats on campus.
The school has about 1,600 students and is near the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, about 65 miles southeast of Washington.
Politicians acknowledged that this shooting adds pressure to take action against gun violence, joining a nationwide groundswell of anger over the Valentine’s Day killings of 17 people at a Florida high school by a teenager with an assault weapon.
Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer praised the first responders, saying the officer at the school “answered the call this morning with swiftness, professionalism, and courage.” He said it’s now for Congress to take action.
“We sympathize. We empathize. We have moments of silence. But we don’t have action,” Hoyer said. “Wringing our hands is not enough.”
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) also spoke to reporters near the high school, expressing anger and saying that at a minimum, universal background checks and a ban on assault-style weapons are needed. He said he believes momentum is building for reform, fueled by student activism.
“These students are literally just not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Cardin said. “I can tell you that Americans are listening to our students. I think our political system will respond.”
Many students across the country are calling for effective gun controls, leading up to Saturday’s March For Our Lives rally in the nation’s capital against gun violence in schools. The violence hasn’t abated since the massacre in Parkland, Fla.; a high school student in Birmingham, Ala., was killed this month when a classmate fired a gun inside a classroom.