JOPPATOWNE SCHOOL SHOOTING Harford county marylyn USA

shooter incident thankfully um that was not the case but we did have a shooting that took place in the school one suspect one victim uh at 12:36 again was the initial call there was the SRO assigned to the school who was in the school who did not hear the shot uh as the assistant the the principal I apologize the principal of the school also was in the school at the time did not hear the shot but heard the commotion that resulted from it uh both the principal and our SRO responded to the scene uh nurses the shooting took place in a first floor men's uh bathroom uh the uh initial uh after the initial shooting uh the suspect left the bathroom left the school uh other uh individuals in the school brought the victim out into the hallway where he was immediately attended to by uh nurses uh as part of the public school system uh within uh the first two minutes we had our first response Deputy on the scene uh within 15 minutes more than 100 police officers were here from all of our uh local partner agencies Belair abine hary Grace the Maryland State Police uh as well as uh Transportation Authority and I know I'm going miss somebody um uh Baltimore County Police sent units up into the county uh uh ATF is here I've received calls from other jurisdictions offering their support uh the Medics from Department of Emergency Services were here in a matter of uh minutes as well uh immediately attended to the patient who was airlifted to a Trauma Center uh again he is the the the victim in this shooting is a 15-year-old male who uh is in serious condition last we heard uh the suspect in the case uh thanks to our community members the suspect in our case was apprehended within minutes uh he's a 16-year-old student at the school this was his first day although were the four days into the school year this was his first day in the school uh and this altercation apparently took place in the bathroom that resulted in a single shot what we believe to be a single shot being fired uh which struck the victim uh he he went a short distance away to some houses they called the also called the police called dispatch that information was given to responding deputies who were able to encounter him very quickly and make an arrest um with with our criminal friendly legislature here in Maryland this is a 16-year-old suspect that we are now not allowed to talk to so as far as trying to give some information our detectives to get information about the questions I have that are all of our partners behind me have as to why we're not allowed to ask the suspect in this case uh we do have uh we've talked to the state's attorney we do have sufficient information uh that he will be charged in association with this shooting without the need to be interviewed um overwhelming evidence if you will um but again that investigation is ongoing I'm very uh thankful again for the quick response of of our deputies of all of our officers and the Troopers in the county all all our Allied Partners all the officer Assistance Department of Emergency Services the great work at Dispatch Center I know Rick SS is with us the director of DS county executiv is with us I can't introduce everybody um but a again a tragic day four days into the school year we're all familiar with the horrible uh shooting that took four lives in Georgia just a couple days ago and here we stand in Harford County with a school shooting uh that's about as much investigative information as I'm going to release at this point it's early on we have uh so many uh of our partners working with us U I'm joined Dr Bolson you can't uh undersell his uh staff and what they did again the the principal and the nurse uh attending to this victim right away hopefully giving him a good chance to survive this event I pray um Dr Bolson did you want to say anythingk thank you Sheriff um so I would like to start by thanking all of these First Responders I pulled up to the school to see just a sea of Lights and people doing their jobs on behalf of our students in this community so thank you so much for that also to know that you know our hearts are breaking for the victim and this victim's family the circumstances are absolutely terrible and uh this this should not be happening in schools um I also want to thank our parents for their patience you know when an incident happens our our job first is to cure the students and and make sure that when we do release them back to their families that we're doing it as carefully and we're keeping as much track of everybody as we possibly can so for anyone who still isn't aware you know the the reunification site is that good shepherd Presbyterian Church just up the road here that process is working we've had families going through and being reunified with uh their children at this time again thank you to this entire Community all the First Responders thank you so much uh I want to say on behalf of my staff thank you to them um they they did the job unfortunately we prepare for things like this um but it's it's never the same as when it actually happens and so you know we're we're you know just devastated to be a part of this awful group of schools that have experienced things like this um and we're going to do everything we can working with this community to make sure this absolutely never happens again