One student is dead, and a suspect has been arrested after a shooting Wednesday at a North Carolina high school, according to local officials.
Law enforcement responded to Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem at 12:07 p.m. after the school resource officer reported a student was shot, Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson said in a news conference. About 1,500 students attend the high school, which is in a residential neighborhood about 83 miles northeast of Charlotte.
The school immediately went into lockdown, Thompson said. Law enforcement subsequently located one student, William Chavis Raynard Miller Jr., with a gunshot wound.
Holding back tears, Thompson told reporters Miller was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, where he later died.
The suspect was arrested without incident after a several-hour manhunt, police confirmed in a tweet just after 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines described it as a “sad day.”
“We experienced something we see on TV across the country, but we have been so fortunate here we have not had to experience that,” he said during the news conference. “But today we are facing it head on with the death of a student from Mount Tabor High School.”
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office is taking the lead on the investigation.
Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough, who was also emotional as he relayed the day’s events, said he was at the school by 12:15 p.m. and met with the deceased student’s family at the hospital.
“I haven’t cried in a while,” he told reporters. “I’ve been crying since I left the hospital.”
Kimbrough said he “felt the pain, tears” of the student’s mother, who requested her son’s name be spoken during the news conference.
“While I’m sad, I’m also mad as hell,” he said.
Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill said his office has a “zero-tolerance policy as it relates to violence being committed at our schools” and praised law enforcement as “heroes” for running into danger to protect the students.
“Children were hiding under the desks in fear of not knowing what was going on,” O’Neill said during the news conference. “As a parent …there’s really no worse feeling than you can imagine.”
Gov. Roy Cooper issued a statement Wednesday offering prayers for the victim, families and students at Mount Tabor High School.
“I have been briefed by law enforcement and the Department of Public Safety is ready to provide any support necessary,” Cooper said. “We must work to ensure the safety of students and educators, quickly apprehend the shooter and keep guns off school grounds.”
The shooting is the second this week in North Carolina after a high school student was injured Monday in a shooting at New Hanover High School in Wilmington.
Winston-Salem police said Mount Tabor High School was on lockdown in a tweet just after 1 p.m. and urged parents not to come to the school.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said law enforcement secured the campus and were “doing everything possible to keep students safe.”
Police also said there was just one incident and several nearby schools were on lockdown “out of an abundance of caution.”
Parents were directed to pick up students at the Harris Teeter Shopping Center on Peace Haven Road. Law enforcement later confirmed there was a “disturbance” at the Harris Teeter but no injuries were reported.
“Reunification will take some time as students are being transported in stages,” the sheriff’s office said.
Students were still being reunited with their families during the Wednesday news conference.
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