United States: Four injured in Los Angeles school shooting
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Thursday morning, at Salvador Castro Middle School in the Westlake District, Los Angeles (L.A.), California, US, four students were injured when a gun went off in a girl's backpack, according to police. L.A. police took a suspect into custody, a twelve-year-old female student, and recovered the gun at the scene.
The four injured students were transported to a local hospital. A fifteen-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was recovering according to a Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center spokesperson on Wednesday. A fifteen-year-old girl was shot in the wrist, and two other students were grazed. The girl and two other students were hospitalized for their injuries.
A 30-year-old staff member was also injured, but reports were unclear whether she was injured by gunfire.
Police officials charged the twelve-year-old girl with negligent discharge of a firearm and she was taken to a juvenile detention center. Police said they did not believe the shooting was intentional, but suspected the girl had the gun in her backpack and it fired off when the bag dropped on the ground.
The Westlake middle school is located near downtown L.A. and is located on the campus of Belmont High School and had an enrollment last year of 355 students.
Sources
- Amanda Lee Myers (AP). "Police say LA middle-school shooting by 12-year-old girl was unintentional" — KPCC, February 1, 2018
- Tracy Bloom and Mark Kono. "2 Students Among 3 Injured After Shooting at Sal Castro Middle School in Westlake District: Police" — KTLA, February 1, 2018
- Ruben Vives, Sonali Kohli, Brittny Mejia, and Howard Blume. "School shooting that injured four students now believed unintentional, police say; 12-year-old girl is booked" — Los Angeles Times, February 1, 2018