Maryland school shooting suspect is dead after confrontation with officer

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Washington Post

Parents arrive to pick up children after the students were moved from Great Mills High School after a shooting Tuesday.

A male student opened fire with a handgun in the hallway of a southern Maryland high school Tuesday, the local sheriff said, injuring two students and exchanging gunfire with an officer stationed at the school.

The shooting suspect, who has not been named, was confirmed dead at 10:41 a.m., said Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron of St. Mary’s County, adding that it was not immediately clear whether the officer’s round of gunfire struck the suspect.

The sheriff’s office said it received a call of shots fired just before 8 a.m. at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, about 60 miles southeast of Washington.

Cameron said the school resource officer was alerted to the gunfire: “He pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, during which that engagement, he fired a round at the shooter simultaneously the shooter fired a round as well.”

Cameron said the officer, whom he did not identify, was not injured during the shooting. He said a male student was transported to a hospital in stable condition, and a female student was transported to a shock trauma facility, where she was in critical condition. Neither of the victims were identified.

“What we know thus far is that Great Mills High School began its school day this morning at 7:45 a.m. like many other days,” Cameron said, “except for on this day a male student produced a handgun and fired a round wounding a female student and another male student in a hallway of Great Mills High School just before classes begun.”

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent agents to the school.

Gov. Larry Hogan said his office was closely monitoring the situation, and that he was praying for the victims and the Great Mills community.

“But prayers are not enough,” Hogan said, in an emailed statement. “Although our pain remains fresh and the facts remain uncertain, today’s horrible events should not be an excuse to pause our conversation about school safety. Instead, it must serve as a call to action.”