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School buses and police in front of Great Mills High School. Photo: AFP

Maryland high school shooter who injured two other students dies after gunfight with police officer

The shooting, which left a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old in critical condition, came four days before the March For Our Lives – partly organised by student survivors of the Parkland rampage

A student who shot and critically wounded two fellow students at a Maryland high school on Tuesday morning, died after exchanging gunfire with a campus security officer, the county sheriff said.  

The school day had barely begun when the student, who has not been identified, shot a male student and a female student at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County before the campus security officer intervened, county Sheriff Timothy Cameron told a news conference. 

“Our school resource officer who was stationed inside the school was alerted to the event and the shots being fired,” Cameron said. 

“He pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter; during that engagement he fired a round at the shooter. Simultaneously, the shooter fired a round as well.” 

The officer was not harmed, the sheriff said.

A student from Great Mills High School is comforted by a guardian while being picked up at Leonardtown High School, where pupils were evacuated following a school shooting at Great Mills High School on Tuesday morning. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Police move students into a different area of Great Mills High School after the shooting on Tuesday morning. Photo: AP

The shooting occurred soon after 8am at Great Mills High School, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of the US capital Washington when a student opened fire on a female pupil with a handgun, St Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron told the MSNBC television network.

You never think it’ll be your school and then it is
Mollie Davis, Great Mills High School pupil

The shooter was confirmed dead in hospital at 10.41am. Cameron said investigators would determine whether the shooter died of a wound from the school resource officer’s gun or in some other way.

The female student, who is 16, had been in critical condition but was stabilised and transferred to another hospital, officials at MedStar St Mary’s Hospital said.

A 14-year-old male student, whom the sheriff had earlier said was also in critical condition, was in good condition after treatment.

Police cars and emergency vehicles with flashing lights could be seen surrounding the school.

“It happened really quickly, right after school started,” Jonathan Freese, a Great Mills student, told CNN.

“The police came and responded really quickly,” Freese said. “They had a lot of officers respond.”

Students were evacuated to another high school near by.

Law enforcement vehicles are seen outside the Great Mills High School following a shooting on Tuesday morning in St. Mary's County, Maryland. Photo: Reuter

Mollie Davis, who identified herself on Twitter as a student at Great Mills, posted a series of tweets about the shooting.

“Now my school is the target,” she wrote. “WHY DO WE LET THIS KEEP HAPPENING??? I’m so tired I’m so tired.

“You never think it’ll be your school and then it is. Great Mills is a wonderful school and somewhere I am proud to go. Why us?”

The Great Mills incident comes about five weeks after a shooting at a Florida high school left 14 students and three adult staff members dead.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School launched a grass roots campaign for gun control following the shooting.

They have organised an event on Saturday called “March For Our Lives,” which is expected to turn out large crowds in US cities, with the main event in Washington.

Young demonstrators urge Congress to take action against gun violence. Photo: AFP

Emma Gonzalez, a Stoneman Douglas student, tweeted her support Tuesday for her peers at Great Mills.

“We are Here for you, students of Great Mills,” Gonzalez said. “Together we can stop this from ever happening again.”

Under the banner #ENOUGH, tens of thousands of US high school students walked out of classrooms around the country on March 14 to protest gun violence.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan pledged to provide assistance.

“Our prayers are with students, school personnel and first responders,” Hogan said in a tweet.

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