SANTA CLARITA, California – A California high school student dressed in black is suspected of having opened fire on campus on Thursday, killing at least one person and wounding five others before he was arrested, officials said.
“Suspect is in custody and being treated at a local hospital,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said on Twitter.
In addition to a dead female, two males were in critical condition and another was in good condition, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital said on Twitter. At Providence Holy Cross Hospital, two female patients were in fair condition and were talking when they arrived, a hospital representative told Reuters.
“We believe at this time that there is only one suspect but we are actively investigating and following all leads,” the Santa Clarita Valley branch of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter.
The suspect was described by police as an Asian male and a student at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Los Angeles.
A weapon was recovered at the scene, a police officer told NBC television.
The incident marked yet another school shooting in the United States, where repeated mass shootings in recent years have intensified the debate about gun control and the constitutional right for citizens to keep and bear arms.
Video from local NBC television showed a line of students marching away from the school and a row of police and fire department vehicles parked out front.
“I was really, really scared. I was shaking,” one female student told NBC television, adding that she saw one person lying on the ground covered in blood.
The student said she was doing homework when people started running, and she hid under a table until police entered the building.
Some 2 300 students attend the school, which is made up of more than a dozen buildings.
The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health was sending staff to Saugus High School to provide mental health resources for students, Kathryn Barger, the department’s supervisor, said on Twitter. (Reuters)
