Fights In Class And Opens Fire That Injures Four At School, 18-Year-Old Teen Detained By Police

Shooting illustration. (Pixabay/Skitterphoto)

JAKARTA - Arlington, Texas security forces have arrested an 18-year-old man in connection with a shooting at a Texas high school, which left four people injured after a fight broke out in a classroom on Wednesday morning.

The suspect, who fled Timberview High School in Arlington after the shooting, was detained after a brief manhunt and will be charged with three counts of assault with a lethal weapon, police said.

At least two of the four injured, one of whom did not require hospitalization, suffered gunshot wounds, police said. Meanwhile, one of the victims is still in critical condition.

"What we believe happened, at first, was that there was a fight between a student and another person in the classroom and a gun was used, and there were four victims," Arlington, Texas Assistant Chief Constable Kevin Kolbye told reporters.

The incident, first reported at around 9:15 a.m. local time, on the school's second floor, sparked a lockdown and a massive police response to secure the building, before students were placed on buses and taken off campus.

The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were also on the scene.

Timberview is part of the Mansfield Independent School District, a large district in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area consisting of 49 schools serving more than 35,000 students.

Kolbye said two officers from the Mansfield Police Department were based at the school and responded immediately.

There have been at least 101 incidents involving gunfire on US school grounds, resulting in 21 deaths and 56 injuries so far this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention organization.

The group recorded at least 96 such incidents, resulting in 23 deaths and 43 injuries, in 2020.