ITALY, Texas (AP) - The Latest on a shooting at a Texas high school (all times local):
9:50 p.m.
About 300 people packed a church in a small North Texas community to pray for a girl wounded in a shooting at the town’s high school.
The vigil Monday night at Central Baptist Church in Italy (IT’-lee) was held to bring comfort to residents in the town of about 2,000 in the wake of the shooting at Italy High School.
Authorities have a 16-year-old boy in custody as a suspect in the shooting of the 15-year-old girl, which occurred Monday morning in the school cafeteria.
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4 p.m.
A fellow student says the suspect in a shooting at a North Texas high school has been violent at school in the past.
Cassie Shook tells The Associated Press that she was just arriving at Italy High School when the shooting happened Monday morning. The 17-year-old says she saw the cafeteria doors fly open and a rush of students running out after a girl was shot. Police say the victim is hospitalized.
Shook says she had complained about the suspect at least twice before to school officials, including a vice principal. She says the first time was after he allegedly made a “hit list” in eighth grade and her name was on it.
Then last year, she says the boy got angry during a class and threw a pair of scissors at a girl. She says he also threw a computer against a wall. Shook says police came to talk to the class. She says the boy was removed from the school but eventually was allowed back.
Police have not named the 16-year-old suspect.
School officials say they cannot comment on disciplinary actions involving students.
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This update has been corrected to show that the shooting was at a high school in North Texas, not central Texas.
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2:45 p.m.
Officials say a 16-year-old suspect in a Texas high school shooting “engaged the victim” and fired several shots from a handgun before being confronted by a school district staffer and fleeing.
Ellis County Sheriff Chuck Edge didn’t say how many times the 15-year-old victim was shot Monday at Italy High School. Authorities have said the girl was airlifted to a Dallas hospital.
Edge says both students attended the school in the tiny town of Italy, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Dallas.
Edge says the male suspect fired a semi-automatic .380 handgun. The teen fled the cafeteria after the confrontation with a staffer but was arrested by law enforcement on school grounds.
Edge says a possible motive is unclear. He also says he doesn’t yet know what charges the suspect might face.
Italy Independent School District Superintendent Lee Joffre says that school will be held Tuesday and grief counselors would be on campus.
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11:10 a.m.
Authorities don’t know if a 16-year-old Texas boy arrested in a high school shooting knows the 15-year-old girl who was airlifted to a hospital after the attack.
Sgt. Joe Fitzgerald of the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office says he doesn’t know how many students were in the Italy High School cafeteria when the shooting happened there Monday morning.
Fitzgerald and school district superintendent Lee Joffre said at a news conference that they don’t know the relationship between the boy and girl. Neither knows the girl’s condition.
Joffre says the 16-year-old boy left the building immediately after opening fire. He would not say whether the boy has had disciplinary issues at the school.
Joffre says the district is working to reunite parents with their children.
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10:20 a.m.
Authorities say a 15-year-old female student has been airlifted to a hospital after being shot at a Texas high school and a 16-year-old male student is in custody.
Sgt. Joe Fitzgerald of the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office says the female student was airlifted to a hospital in Dallas following the shooting early Monday in the small town of Italy (IT-lee), 45 miles (70 kilometers) south of Dallas.
He said he had no information on her condition.
The sheriff’s office says students have been moved from the school and an investigation is ongoing.
A sheriff’s office dispatcher, Debra Murray, said the shooting took place at Italy High School.
A message left with the school district was not immediately returned.
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This item has been corrected to show the sheriff’s official is named Sgt. Joe Fitzgerald, not Sgt. Joe Fitz Fitzgerald.
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9:15 a.m.
Sheriff’s officials say there’s been a shooting at a high school in a small town south of Dallas and a suspect is in custody.
The Ellis County sheriff’s office said on Twitter that the “shooter is in custody” after the shooting early Monday at the school in Italy (IT-lee), some 45 miles (70 kilometers) south of Dallas.
No injuries have been confirmed in the shooting.
The sheriff’s office says students have been moved from the school and an investigation is ongoing.
A sheriff’s office dispatcher, Debra Murray, said the shooting took place at Italy High School. Murray declined to release additional details.
A message left with the school district was not immediately returned.
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