One student was killed after a gunman opened fire at a North Carolina high school, local police confirmed, with authorities launching a manhunt as the shooter remains at large. The school shooting is the state’s second this week.
The student succumbed to their injuries in hospital following the shooting at Mount Tabor High School on Wednesday, Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson said during a press conference. While the school campus was placed on lockdown and has since been secured, the shooting suspect is still on the run.
“We and the WSPD have secured the campus and are doing everything possible to keep students safe,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement shared on Twitter.
We are actively seeking the suspect. We have no confirmed information of any other shootings or injuries.
Parents of students at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, NC, wait outside of the school for updates on their children.
Winston-Salem Police confirmed there has been a shooting. One student is injured. Police are still seeking the suspect. pic.twitter.com/ugdqOaMjcl
Several other schools in the Winston-Salem area were also placed on lockdown “out of an abundance of caution,” police said, noting there were no other incidents. While a “disturbance” was reported near a supermarket about one mile south of the high school, authorities said no second shooting occurred.
Police believe the suspect is a fellow student at the school, though could not say their age or whether they had any prior run-ins with the law. Asked if the incident may have been “gang related,” the sheriff said it was too early to speculate about motive.
Mount Tabor High is the second school in the state to be marred by gun violence in the space of three days. On Monday, a shooting at New Hanover High School in Wilmington left a student with non-life threatening injuries, seeing a 15-year-old arrested and charged the same day. The shooting reportedly erupted over an argument on campus.
