Two shot outside school

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

A 19-year-old student was seriously injured and an 18-year-old received minor injuries yesterday morning when they were shot outside a high school in Northwest.

The incident occurred about 9:15 a.m., a half-hour after classes began, in a parking lot behind Theodore Roosevelt High School at 4301 13th St.

According to police, the two male students were walking on the sidewalk along Iowa Avenue when shots were fired from a car that had just exited the school parking lot. The car then sped from the scene. Roosevelt High School backs up to MacFarland Middle School, on Iowa Avenue.

Both schools were locked down until the end of the school day, and officials advised parents not to come to the school until that time.

Metropolitan Police are classifying the incident as a "drive-by shooting" and said investigators are looking for at least two men in a gray or silver Cadillac. Police said at least eight shots were fired. The 19-year-old was hit in the back and the 18-year-old was grazed in the shoulder.

The older student was transported to an area hospital in critical but stable condition. Police said the other student was treated at the scene.

Neither of the students was identified because they are considered witnesses.

Fourth District Cmdr. Hylton Burton said investigators are looking into the background of the students to determine whether the shooting stems from an altercation. It also was not clear yesterday whether the students were targeted or chosen at random.

"We don't really have a real motive right now," Cmdr. Burton said. "That's something our detectives in the Fourth District are working on right now."

When students were released from school at 3:15 p.m., a police helicopter flew in wide circles overhead, patrol cars with flashing lights circled the block and a police officer on horseback attracted crowds of teenagers.

School security personnel also were on hand to check cars as they entered school grounds to pick up students.

A letter sent home to parents by Roosevelt High School Principal Benjamin Hosch offered few details about the incident, and simply said, "One student was shot on Iowa Avenue, and another student was superficially wounded."

The letter said that the faculty and staff were "deeply saddened," that "every security precaution has been taken for the safety of your children" and that the school will continue to make grief counselors and psychologists available to students.

Roosevelt High has about 800 students in the ninth to 12th grades. According to the Web site www.greatschools.net, 15 percent of Roosevelt High 10th-graders last year scored above the 40th percentile in reading and 19 percent scored above the 40th percentile in mathematics. The goal is for all students to score at or above the 40th percentile.