The Slatest

16-Year-Old Opens Fire in California High School, Critically Injures Student

Bobak Ha’Eri/Wikimedia Commons

UPDATE: A 16-year-old student walked into a classrom and used a shotgun to shoot a student at Taft Union High School, around 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles. He then fired at another student but missed, reports the Associated Press. While the AP says a teacher and a staff member talked the shooter into surrendering, a local ABC affiliate says the student hit the teacher in the head when he missed  and “was taken down by the teacher who was shot.”

The student was airlifted to a hospital and is now in critical, but stable, condition, according to police. The teacher refused medical treatment. The high school usually has an armed officer on campus but he couldn’t get to work today because he was snowed in, notes the AP.

Thursday, Jan. 10 at 2 p.m.: On the same day as Vice President Joe Biden was meeting with NRA representatives to discuss how to prevent gun violence, there was news of another school shooting. Initial reports say two people were shot. Information is still scarce about what happened at Taft Union High School, but it seems there were no fatalities. And one of those shot appears not to have been seriousy hurt because he or she denied medical treatment, according to a local ABC affiliate.   

The shooting started at around 9 a.m. and police took the shooter into custody around 20 minutes later. The local station, 23ABC News, reports that it received calls from inside the school from people who claimed to be hiding in closets.