Following a shooting at a Nebraska high school on Tuesday that critically injuring one teen, Omaha police took a suspect into custody about three blocks away from the school.
According to Omaha police on Tuesday, officers responded to reports of a shooting at Omaha Northwest High School during lunch at 12:23 p.m local time after the school’s resource officer first alerted authorities. Officers discovered the victim, a 15-year-old boy, inside the school, and he was quickly transported to a local hospital and is said to be critically injured.
According to Omaha Deputy Chief Sherie Thomas, the police believe the shooting was an isolated incident between two students, and the suspect was found three blocks away within 30 minutes of the shooting.
“We believe this was an isolated altercation between two students,” Thomas said during a press briefing. “Thankfully, the suspect was caught quickly, preventing further harm.”
Newsweek reached out to the Omaha Police Department via email on Tuesday for comment.
Megan Nielsen/Omaha World-Herald/AP
Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting, and more details expected to emerge in the coming days.
Meanwhile, shortly after word of the incident spread, parents and guardians rushed to the school as tearful reunions took place in the parking lot after students began to be released around 1 p.m. local time.
Eyewitnesses described the chaos that ensued as students fled the school.
“I ran as fast as I could. I heard screams and saw people running,” one student told local ABC affiliate station KETV. “I just didn’t want to die.”
In response to the shooting, two neighboring Catholic high schools, Marian and Roncalli, were briefly placed on lockdown as a precaution. The lockdown has been lifted since the suspect was taken into custody.
Tuesday’s shooting comes less than a week after a school shooting in Winder, Georgia, that left four dead and injured at least nine more.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) identified the suspect in last Wednesday’s shooting as 14-year-old student Colt Gray.
The agency confirmed four casualties, including two students and two teachers, and nine hospitalized after the mass shooting on Wednesday morning. Gray is in custody, and he will be charged with murder and tried as an adult according to the GBI.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said during a press conference last week that the shooting was first reported at 9:30 a.m. local time. Smith called the shooting an “evil thing” and said the investigation is “active and ever-developing.”
Meanwhile, the ongoing shooting incidents across the country have reignited concerns over safety in schools and the surrounding communities as schools have resumed classes following the summer break.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to reducing gun violence in the U.S., there are a total of 848 incidents of gunfire on school grounds from 2013 through 2021.
Of these incidents, 573 occurred on the grounds of a preschool, elementary, middle or high school, resulting in 188 deaths and 392 people wounded and nearly half (at least 46 percent) of the victims in these incidents were students.