A deadly drive-by shooting happened outside of a high school in Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday.
Police said Monday afternoon that officers from Des Moines Police Department as well as the local fire department reported to East High School, where multiple shooting victims were found outside.
The three victims were teens, police said, and were hospitalized in critical condition before one, a 15-year-old male, died.
According to a press release obtained by KCCI Des Moines, rescue personnel and officials responded to several reports of gunfire at the school, with “multiple persons injured.”
The release stated that the shooting appeared to originate from a passing vehicle. Potential suspects have been detained, but no charges have been filed as of Monday afternoon.
The two victims still in the hospital are female, ages 16 and 18, according to police.
A later update from police, per KCCI, specified that while the two female victims are students at East High School, the male victim who died was not a student.
The school and surrounding area were locked down on Monday afternoon shortly after the shooting, with residents asked to stay clear.
“Our entire community is in mourning right now,” Des Moines Superintendent Thomas Ahart said Monday evening. “We do not have young lives to spare in Des Moines.”
While the incident took place at approximately 2:48 PM local time, “students were dismissed at approximately 3:30 PM, after law enforcement gave an all clear,” the Des Moines Public Schools site said.
Police chief Dana Wingert was at the scene Monday afternoon and evening.
“This is a dark day for the city of Des Moines,” Wingert said at an evening news conference. “Another tragic loss of life. Every one of them is tragic. Every one of them is pointless.”
The shooting happened shortly before 3 p.m., according to school officials, near the northwest corner of the school campus. Both Wingert and Ahart praised the swiftness of the school and police response.
“I think we can all agree an event like this is everyone’s worst nightmare. Tonight, hug your students and love them,” East High principal Jill Versteeg said, per the site.
No classes will be held at the school on Tuesday. Officials had not released the victims’ identities by Monday evening. However, grief counseling will be available for students close to the victims.
“It is a punch in the gut that we have three kids in the hospital,” KCCI-TV reported that Sgt. Paul Parizek, the police department spokesperson, said, “but we are hoping for the best for them.”
East High sophomore Jadi Makwag, 15, said he was in seventh period Monday afternoon when the news starting buzzing around the school and students were put on lockdown. He said it was a shock.
“I thought it was a joke at first because we had a fire drill earlier today… Nobody expected it,” Makwag said.
ToyA Johnson, 45, has two children who attend East. She was at home about three blocks away from the high school when she heard the sirens.
“I was terrified,” Johnson said.
Johnson called her children. Her panic turned to relief when they answered, then sadness as she thought of the parents whose child won’t be returning home.
“You know, we send our kids out here to get an education every day and I am feeling so sad for those parents because they did not know that today they would send their children to get an education and they wouldn’t return home,” she said, beginning to cry. “We need to have solutions to the violence in our schools.”
Her son, A’Rontae Johnson, 15, said that shortly before the shooting happened students had gone outside because smoke alarms went off. After students were allowed back in the building, he headed to his seventh period class. It was at that time he said he heard gunshots and screaming.
Besides an announcement about the school being on lockdown, class seemed to go on as normal, he said. Once the lockdown was lifted, the 10th-grader met up with his sister, mother, and younger brother.
Izaah Knox, executive director of the social services agency Urban Dreams and a candidate for the Iowa Senate, decried the violence.
“Right now there are too many guns on the street. Too many guns in the hands of young people,” Knox said.
The incident is at least the 13th shooting at an American campus with K-12 students this year.
This country has always had a lot of guns the amount of guns on the street have absolutely nothing to do with this. A gun is an inanimate object. There’s too many criminals on the street there’s too many children and adults being programmed by the media and the entertainment industry to believe that life is not precious. There’s a whole lot more problems in the weapon in this. There has always been a lot of weapons in this country from the beginning till now and that times in history a lot more than there is now and this kind of thing didn’t go on then so how can you blame it on the amount of firearms in the country or the availability of firearms! You had to throw that last little dig in
I agree with you!
Thanks for pointing the very real problems we face, problems of own making. Perhaps we should adopt some of the laws other countries have when weapons are used in a crime.
First, to bring a weapon to a crime concealed should carry a sentence of 5 years. If the weapon is displayed as to intimidate would be victims, then the incarceration should be doubled to 10 years. If a victim is wounded, but not critically, then the culprit should face a sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison the length based on the severity of the injury. If the victim is critically wounded the sentence should be 50 years to life. It the victim dies, the penalty should be execution.
By the way, we must also have severe penalties against authorities that abuse their police powers. If a police officer, investigator, lab tech, prosecutor, or judge plants false evidence, lies, or withholds exculpatory evidence, the penalty should be the maximum their intended victim faced up to and including the death penalty.
For those imprisoned unfairly, those responsible should face the same sentence their victim faced, up to and including the death penalty. Their victims should receive significant compensation for any time in imprisoned, even if the victim wasn’t really employable the base restitution should start at $100,000 or 5 times their previous wage, which ever is higher for every year unjustly incarcerated. Should an innocent person die in prison, the restitution should go ton his family.
For those who are reticent about such restitution, please keep in mind that the state should face draconian penalties for specific acts of injustice,