(CNN) A student was taken into custody Friday after a shooting at a Noblesville, Indiana, middle school left three people injured, officials said.
A female student from Noblesville West Middle School was hospitalized in critical condition and a male teacher was in good condition, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office said in a Friday night news release. However, hospital officials said at least three people, including one adult, were being treated. One student had an ankle fracture.
NFD and NPD are on scene of an active shooter at Noblesville West Middle School. Suspect is in custody. NPD will have more info when it's available. — Noblesville Fire (@NoblesvilleFD) May 25, 2018
Noblesville police Chief Kevin Jowitt said the shooting in the city of 60,000, about 25 miles northeast of Indianapolis, was reported shortly after 9 a.m.
A student asked for permission to leave the classroom and "he returned armed with two handguns," Jowitt said at an afternoon news conference. The situation was quickly resolved, and the student was arrested in or near the classroom, police public information officer Lt. Bruce Barnes said.
Authorities did not release the name of the suspect or the wounded student. The teacher was identified as Jason Seaman, 29, according to his aunt, Brenda Hubly-Sushka.
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A student at an Indiana middle school barged into a class on Friday morning wielding two handguns and firing shots. A teacher and another student were wounded. The boy with the guns, the authorities say, was subdued, then arrested. And on a sunny day that began with the promise of a holiday weekend, yet another American city was left to cope with classroom bloodshed.
“Here we go again, and it’s just really, really, really unfortunate,” said Douglas G. Carter, the superintendent of the Indiana State Police. “I wish I had the answer.”
The shooting on Friday, at Noblesville West Middle School in suburban Indianapolis, came a week after 10 people were fatally shot at a high school in Santa Fe, Tex., an episode that revived a national debate about gun control and gun rights. It came nine days after a police officer in Illinois shot a gunman who interrupted a high school graduation rehearsal. And it came about three months after 17 people were massacred at a school in Parkland, Fla.
“We’ve had these shootings around the country — you just never think it could happen in Noblesville, Indiana,” Mayor John Ditslear said on Friday afternoon. “But it did. Our people were prepared.”
CLOSE Raw video: Empty buses headed to Noblesville High School near scene of school shooting IndyStar
Traffic heading westbound on Ind. 32 and Ind. 38 backs up at the trafic signal at Ind. 37 in Noblesville. (Photo: Joe Vitti/IndyStar)
Exactly a week after a suspect killed 10 at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, tragedy struck again.
An adult and a teenager were injured at Noblesville West Middle School in central Indiana on Friday morning.
Few Americans would disagree shootings like the one Friday have become too common. But as politicians and law enforcement officials scramble for answers, the shootings and bodies continue to pile up.
The Indiana shooting was at least the 21st incident of 2018 in which someone was injured with a firearm on the campus of a U.S. school.
Here is a list of the other 20 shootings at schools this year:
CLOSE Ten people were killed and ten others were injured in a shooting at Santa Fe High School outside Houston. USA TODAY
May 18: Santa, Fe, Texas
Police say shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, killed 10 and injured 13 during a morning shooting Santa Fe High School.
May 11: Palmdale, Calif.
A 14-year-old fired about 10 rounds with a rifle at Highland High School, wounding a 15-year-old student.
April 20: Ocala, Fla.
On the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, Sky Bouche, 19, a former student at Forest High School, returned to the campus with a shotgun and fired through a classroom door, injuring a 17-year-old student.
April 12: Raytown, Mo.
A man was shot in the stomach at Raytown South Middle School during a track meet.
March 20: Lexington Park, Md.
Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, opened fire at Great Mills High School — about 65 miles south of Washington, D.C. — shooting two students before an armed school resources officer intervened. Rollins was killed and one of his victims, Jaelynn Willey, 16, was later taken off life support.
March 8: Mobile, Ala.
One person was wounded in a shooting at an apartment building on the University of South Alabama campus.
March 7: Birmingham, Ala.
A female student, 17, was killed when a 17-year-old student shot her in a Huffman High School classroom in what appeared to be an accidental shooting. The suspect, who shot himself in the leg while trying to leave the scene, was charged with manslaughter.
March 7: Jackson, Miss.
A student was shot in a Jackson State University dorm. The injuries were not life-threatening.
March 2: Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Police said James Eric Davis Jr., 19, fatally shot his parents at a Central Michigan University dorm.
Feb. 27: Norfolk, Va.
A Norfolk State University student was shot in the buttocks from an adjacent dorm room while doing his homework. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Feb. 27: Itta Bena, Miss.
A person was shot in a Mississippi Valley State University rec center. Police said the victim was not a student and the injuries were not life-threatening.
Feb. 24: Savannah, Ga.
A man was shot multiple times on the Savannah State University campus and later died from his injuries. Neither the suspect nor victim was a student at the university, officials said.
Feb. 14: Parkland, Fla.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.
Feb. 9: Nashville
A 17-year-old was shot outside Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School. Police identified the suspect as a 14-year-old boy.
Feb. 5: Oxon Hill, Md.
An Oxon Hill High School student was shot in the school's parking lot after a disagreement with two other teens. The victim survived the shooting.
Feb. 1: Los Angeles
A 12-year-old girl brought a gun to Salvador B. Castro Middle School and the weapon accidentally went off when her bag dropped. Four people were hit, including a 15-year-old student who sustained a non-fatal gunshot to the head.
Jan. 31: Philadelphia
A man, 32, was shot twice in the leg, and later died of his injuries, after a brawl during a Lincoln High School basketball game.
Jan. 23: Benton, Ky.
Two students were killed at rural Marshall County High School when a 15-year-old opened fire, injuring more than a dozen other students. The suspect was charged with two counts of murder and a dozen assault charges.
Jan. 22: Italy, Texas
A 15-year-old girl was wounded when a student, 16, shot her inside the Italy High school cafeteria. The victim survived after she was airlifted to a Dallas hospital.
Jan. 20: Winston Salem, N.C.
Najee Ali Baker, 21, a Winston-Salem State University football player, was fatally shot at a party on Wake Forest's campus.
What we know: 10 dead in Texas school shooting, suspect identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis
Texas high school student: 'You hear boom, boom, boom, and I just ran as fast as I could'
More: Who is Texas school shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis?
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Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, including Charlie Mirsky and Alfonso Calderon, and other high school students across the U.S. spoke to Democrats on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force forum.
AN AMERICAN student armed with two handguns opened fire inside his science classroom Friday, authorities said, wounding a classmate and a teacher whose swift intervention was credited with saving lives.
The shooter, who had asked to be dismissed from the class before returning with the guns, was arrested “extremely quickly” after the 9am incident at Noblesville West Middle School in the US state of Indiana, police Chief Kevin Jowitt said.
Authorities didn’t release his name or say whether he had been in trouble before but indicated he likely acted alone.
Seventh-grader Ethan Stonebraker said the student was acting suspiciously when he walked into the room while the class was taking a test.
He said science teacher Jason Seaman likely averted a catastrophe.
“Our science teacher immediately ran at him, swatted a gun out of his hand and tackled him to the ground,” Stonebraker said.
“If it weren’t for him, more of us would have been injured for sure.”
Mr Stonebraker told ABC News that Mr Seaman threw a basketball at the shooter and ran toward the bullets as screaming students sought cover behind a table.
He said he also knew the suspected gunman, whom he described as “a nice kid most of the times” and said he often joked with the classmates.
“It’s just a shock he would do something like that,” Stonebraker said.
The attack comes a week after an attack at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, that killed eight students and two teachers, and months after the school attack that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida.
The Florida attack inspired students from that school and others throughout the country to call for more restrictions on access to guns.
Mr Seaman’s brother, Jeremy Seaman, told The Indianapolis Star that his brother was shot three times and was undergoing surgery.
He said he was conscious after the shooting and talked with his wife, telling her he was OK.
Mr Seaman, 29, was in good condition Friday night, a police spokesman Lieutenant Bruce Barnes said.
The injured student, a girl, was in critical condition, Mr Barnes said. Her name has not been released.
“There were no apparent injuries to the alleged shooter,” Barnes said in a news release.
Jeremy Seaman said his brother was a defensive end for Southern Illinois University’s football team and has never been a person to run away.
Hours after the shooting, law enforcement agents sealed off part of an upscale neighbourhood in Noblesville but weren’t commenting on whether the suspect lived there.
Sandy McWilliams, a member of a landscaping crew working nearby, said six officers toting assault rifles entered a home.
Students were bussed to the Noblesville High School gym, where hundreds of parents and other family members arrived to retrieve them.
Authorities referred to a prompt and heroic response at the school but didn’t confirm accounts of the teacher tackling the student or describe the role of the resource officer who was stationed at the school.
When asked to elaborate on his praise of the response, Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter said: “Wait until one day we can tell you that story. You’ll be proud of them, too.”
Eighth-grader Chris Navarro said he was inside an auditorium when he heard several gunshots about a minute before the bell rang for the change in classes.
“The speaker came on and said we were on lockdown and people rushed in and we went to the back of the room. I went into this little room in the back with three other people,” he said calmly standing between his parents as they picked him up.
Jennifer Morris, who was among the worried parents who rushed to get their kids, appeared slightly dazed and said she was at work when her 14-year-old son sent a text message about the shooting, stunning her.
“He said, ‘I’m OK, please come get me.’ That was probably 20 minutes after it happened,” Morris said. “It’s like a bad dream. I don’t know how you get the kids through this. This isn’t something you’re trained for as a parent.”
Governor Eric Holcomb, who was returning from a trip to Europe on Friday, issued a statement saying he and other state leaders were getting updates about the situation and that 100 state police officers had been made available to work with local law enforcement.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected by this horrible situation,” Holcomb said.
Noblesville, which is about 32 kilometres northeast of Indianapolis, is home to about 50,000 people.
The middle school has about 1,300 students from grades 6-8. The school’s academic year was scheduled to end next Friday.
Indiana’s Senate Democrats issued a statement in response to Friday’s school shooting expressing their condolences to the victims and calling for steps to prevent such shootings, including restrictions on guns.
