DALLAS (AP) — The student accused of injuring four in a shooting at a Dallas high school was let into the building through an unsecured door and then walked down a hallway toward a group of students, opening fire on them and then appearing to take a point-blank shot at one, according to an arrest warrant released Wednesday.
The 17-year-old suspect was being held in Dallas County jail on Wednesday on a charge of aggravated assault mass shooting. He was taken into custody several hours after the shooting, which happened just after 1 p.m. on Tuesday at Wilmer-Hutchins High School.
Four male students were injured in the shooting and taken to hospitals, according to authorities. By Wednesday, two had been discharged and two remained hospitalized for observation but were expected to recover, the Dallas Fire-Recue Department said.
Three of those injured were between the ages of 15 to 18 and were shot, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue. A fourth person whose age was unknown had an injury that Dallas Fire-Rescue said could only be identified as a “musculoskeletal injury” to the lower body.
Dallas Fire-Rescue said Wednesday that a fifth person — a 14-year-old female — was later taken to the hospital for anxiety-related symptoms. She had not been shot.
The shooting drew a large number of police and other law enforcement agents to the roughly 1,000-student campus.
School surveillance camera footage showed that an unidentified student let the suspect in through an unsecured door prior to the shooting, according to the arrest warrant. The arrest warrant said that after spotting the group of students in the hallway, he displayed a firearm and began firing “indiscriminately” before approaching a student who was not able to run and walking toward that student and appearing to take a point-blank shot.
Christina Smith, assistant police chief for the Dallas Independent School District, said during a Tuesday news conference that she did not have any information on what led to the shooting.
Smith said the gun didn’t come into the school during “regular intake time.” She said “it was not a failure of our staff, of our protocols, or of the machinery that we have.” But she said she could not elaborate on that.
Dallas school district officials did not immediately respond to an email or call from The Associated Press seeking additional information on Wednesday.
Stephanie Elizalde, the school district’s superintendent, said at the Tuesday news conference that there would be no school at the high school for the rest of the week. But she added that counselors would be available to students.
The suspect’s bond was set at $600,000. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.
At the same school last April, one student shot another in the leg.
