Three people were killed and six wounded in an incident involving an active shooter at a high school in Michigan on Monday, officials said.
Erica Cumings, 17, who was in Monroe High School’s school gym at the time of the incident, said students fled to the gym’s locker room.
“I saw a girl go down,” Cumings told CNN, adding that she and other students pulled up her friend’s skirt to try to stop the bleeding. She said that some students went into the office to try to help others, “including a janitor.”
The incident began in the high school’s cafeteria at around 8:30 a.m. ET, Monroe County Undersheriff Chris Elliott said. Monroe is in northern Michigan just south of Detroit.
“Emergency personnel responded to reports of multiple gunshot victims,” Elliot said, adding that authorities received calls of an active shooter at the school “almost immediately.”
The sheriff said the school district contacted police shortly after receiving the initial call.
First responders were on the scene “within minutes,” Elliott said. He added that a student was armed with a handgun and that the shooter was likely dead, though no further details were immediately released.
Parents rushed to the school after officials sent out an alert about the shooting, said James Herman, a 16-year-old junior.
Herman said he went to the school’s athletic field after being told by police it was safe. There, he found two women who told him they had been shot.
It’s the second deadly school shooting in two days. On Friday, a student opened fire inside Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington state, killing one classmate and injuring two others. The shooter committed suicide, authorities said.
“We feel our school community is safe,” Monroe Public Schools Superintendent Robert Kallinen said in a statement. “However, out of an abundance of caution, the district is dismissing all students from school on a two-hour delay. We will provide information on when the students will be dismissed on Tuesday as soon as possible.”
Authorities have not released the names of the person who died or the person who was injured. The Sheriff’s office has not identified the gunman and Monroe police have said they are not releasing any information.
The shootings come less than a week after a teenage gunman killed 17 people and injured 13 others at a Florida high school, sparking a political firestorm over gun control.
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