SEATTLE — A student was killed Tuesday in what is believed to be a targeted attack at a north Seattle high school, officials say. A suspect has been arrested.
Police received reports of shots fired at Ingraham High School shortly before 10 a.m. Officers entered the school and found one person with a gunshot wound and provided aid until medics arrived, police said.
The person was taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, police said. Mayor Bruce Harrell said the person, a student who has not been publicly identified, later died.
The campus is on lockdown, Seattle Public Schools said. Police have secured the school, according to the department.
“We in the city joined a long list of cities this year that have had school shootings,” Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said.
Reunification of students and families began around 11:30 a.m. at 135th Street and Meridian Avenue North, Seattle police said. Students were being released one classroom at a time to the auditorium, where families can sign them out. Students who are 18 and older can leave on their own as long as they check out, police said. Police and the school district are developing a transportation plan for students who cannot be picked up at the reunification site.
Wednesday classes have been canceled at the school, the district said in an online update.
Police have not yet shared any information about the victim or the suspect.
Shoreline schools went on “lockout” for a while Tuesday morning out of an abundance of caution, the district said. The lockout was lifted shortly after 11 a.m.
The Police Department is working with the Fire Department and the school district.
By 11 a.m., officers were identifying individuals who knew what happened or had observed the incident. Police were working to get other individuals out of the building.
Staff at the high school said more than 1,400 people are in the building on average.
Hundreds of parents stood out in front of Ingraham High School, arriving to a campus surrounded by police tape and swarming with police officers as they waited for students to slowly exit the building. It was quiet, and only a low murmur was coming from the crowd.
Many parents and guardians were on their phones making updates to worried family members. There were snacks and coffee, but tensions were high and some parents have been waiting two hours to be reunited with their kids.
One parent said her daughter was giving her text updates while she was in her classroom waiting to be picked up. Another rushed from work to pick up her cousin, who told her she was scared and hiding.
Students started being released from the building around 12:30 p.m. Tables were set up in alphabetical order out front and staff yelled out one last name at a time.
“Thankful for Seattle Police being on the scene and helping to resolve this incident before the shooter had the chance to hurt more people. Our children should never have to experience this. We can and must do better by them,” Gov. Jay Inslee, a 1969 Ingraham graduate, said in a tweet.
Madeleyne De Leon, an Ingraham student, said she was walking with two friends to gym class when she got a call from another friend. “There were shots. Get away from the school as fast as possible,” he said, and hung up.
De Leon, 14, and her friends ran from the school to the nearby Sprouts grocery store parking lot, where they waited for their parents to pick them up.
The shooting happened in the passing time before second period, she said.
“I’m really scared, but I’m glad most people are OK. I’m OK and with my family right now,” she said. “It’s a lot to process.”
Matteo Griffin said his wife, Heather, is a consulting teacher for the district and mentors new teachers. He had been talking with her since moments after the lockdown was announced. She was holding a one-on-one meeting, with no students around, when the shooting happened. While his wife must remain on the campus during the lockdown, he is volunteering in the auditorium to help students connect with their parents. “There will come a time this evening when she needs to process this and then there will be many tears.”
About 15 minutes after learning that there had been a shooting at the school her two sons attend, Leanna Sparks got a text from her 14-year-old, saying he had heard gunshots.
“It’s like my worst nightmare come true,” she said. While her sons waited inside their classrooms for police to visit each room, her sons were “scared (and) worried about who got hurt,” she said. “They want to get out, they don’t want to go back to school ... until we figure out what’s going on.”
Sparks, who has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years, is now considering homeschooling her two children. She had already prepared them for what to do if they ever heard shots: Hide, she told them, and don’t be a hero.
Fred Jala, whose child is a sophomore at Ingraham, said he’s feeling lots of emotions: “scared for my student’s safety, sadness for the victim, sadness for the students for being so close to violence, anger at gun culture and its enablers.”
Bernard Richard Hall was also among parents searching for answers Tuesday morning.
When Hall’s 15-year-old son left for school this morning, he forgot his phone at home. Two hours after police responded to shots fired at the high school, Hall had yet to hear from his son, a sophomore.
Hall and his son recently moved to Seattle from Pullman. Hall learned of the shooting through an email from the school district. Wanting more information, he drove to the school. As he stood in the parking lot waiting for an update, while the school remained on lockdown and most students remained inside, Hall covered his face with a tissue and wiped tears from his eyes.
“You hear about it in the news all the time,” Hall said. “Maybe it’s cliche but it’s different when it happens to you.”
Ingraham High School enrolled 1,462 students last school year and had a graduation rate of 90%, according to state data.
The north Seattle school offers the rigorous International Baccalaureate program, one of only 13 such programs in Washington state. According to a school climate survey from the spring, about 83% of students responded favorably to questions about relationships and belonging, but only 62% responded favorably to questions about behavior and safety.
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(Seattle Times reporter Jeanie Lindsay contributed to this report.)
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