A 12-year-old male student opened fire Tuesday morning at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, N.M., seriously wounding two students, before being confronted by a staff member and ultimately being taken into custody, New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Chief Cassetas said the shooting took place around 7:30 a.m. inside the gymnasium of the school. He said the student, whom he declined to identify, used a shotgun. Cassetas and a motive in the attack remains unclear.
“I believe we have the only individual in custody right now that’s responsible for this,” Cassetas said.
He said authorities are in “direct contact” with the suspect’s parents.
Governor of New Mexico Susana Martinez said two students were injured in the shooting.
The Associate Press reports that, according to officials at a Lubbock, Texas hospital, an injured male student who was in critical condition is 11-years-old. Earlier conflicting reports cited his age as 14 and 12-years-old.
Information from the nurses treating the boy indicates he was the shooter's target, hospital spokesman Eric Finley said.
Governor Martinez said a 13-year-old girl is in serious condition.
The governor said a school staff member sustained minor injuries in the incident and declined medical attention.
“The shooter was quickly stopped by one staff member who walked right up to him and asked him to set down the firearm, which he did,” Martinez said.
Martinez explained that the staff member was assisted by a State Police Lt. who was dropping off his own child at the school when the incident unfolded.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and the New Mexico State Police are leading the investigation with the assistance of local law enforcement in Roswell and school officials.
A student who witnessed the shooting said a male student shot the boy twice in the face and shot the girl in the arm.
Eighth grader Odiee Carranza said she was walking to the school gym when a boy bumped into her as he rushed past. She told him to be careful, and he apologized and continued on. He ran to the gym, where he pulled a gun out of a band instrument case and fired at the students, she said.
"Then he shot up in the sky, then dropped the gun, and then some teacher grabbed the kid that had the gun," Carranza said.
Carranza described the shooter as a "smart kid and a nice kid."
Sixth-grade student Anyssa Vegara told the Albuquerque Journal she was talking to a security guard when she heard a shot.
"I turned around, and all I saw was someone on the floor with their arm bleeding," Vegara told the Journal.
She said the security guard ran to assist the injured student, and school officials ordered all the other students to their classrooms.
Eventually, she was able to text her mother, Monica Vegara.
"From the time hearing about it until the time she texted, it was a nightmare," Monica Vegara said.
Fawna Hendricks, whose son is a seventh-grader at Berrendo Middle School, told the newspaper she heard about the shooting on the radio. "Basically I jumped outta bed, threw on clothes, panicked," Hendricks said.
Another student, Gabby Vasquez, said the boy who was shot "was really nice, got along with everybody."
Two prayer services were scheduled for Tuesday night at Roswell's Calvary Baptist and First Baptist churches. Pastor Chris Mullennix said parents were worried and heartbroken, but there was a sense among many he spoke with that the community would be able to come together.
School officials said classes at the school Wednesday would be cancelled but counselors would be on hand for students and parents.
Roswell, which is in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, has a population of about 50,000. The city has been rocked by gang violence in recent years and has asked Homeland Security Investigations to step in and help.
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