ALPINE, Texas -- A 14-year-old girl died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday after shooting and injuring another female student inside a high school in west Texas, according to a county sheriff.
Authorities did not release a possible motive for the gunfire that rang out shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in Alpine, a town of 5,900 about 220 miles southeast of El Paso. The shooting was followed by a series of unrelated threats made by a male caller that added to the chaos of the morning and diverted law enforcement officials from the high school.
"That's ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we've got this situation going on," Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson told radio station KVLF.
The sheriff said the family of the girl who died had moved to the Alpine area about six months ago. She was a freshman at the school, he said, but he declined to provide other details.
Dodson said the injured student ran outside seeking help and was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. A U.S. Homeland Security officer responding to the shooting also was injured; he was shot in the leg when a U.S. marshal accidentally discharged his weapon, Dodson said.
Big Bend Regional Medical Center spokesman Ruth Hucke said the hospital treated two people. She said one was treated and released, while the other was transferred. Hucke didn't specify which patient was released, but officials said the injured officer was transferred to a hospital in Odessa.
The shooting at the high school prompted a lockdown at Alpine's three public schools, which were later evacuated.
Alpine police Chief Russell Scown said even after the shooter was found mortally wounded in a bathroom at the school, it wasn't immediately clear that she was the assailant. Emergency responders at one point thought two shooters may have been involved.
After an emergency board of trustees meeting Thursday afternoon, officials at the Alpine Independent School District issued a statement closing its three schools today. The statement said the district will have counselors and clergymen available Monday when classes resume. It is also holding a training session for staff members on responding to trauma and will hold a parent and community forum Sunday night.
Law enforcement officials also were dealing with threats made after the shooting. They said they don't believe there was a connection between the threats and the shooting at the high school.
Authorities said threats were phoned in to an Alpine hospital and to Sul Ross State University, which is about 1 mile from the high school. Officers and bomb-sniffing dogs had to search for explosives in each building of the university, Dodson said. None was found.
A Section on 09/09/2016