One person is dead and two are criticall injured after a shooting outside of an Iowa high school.
Police were called at around 3pm after reports of a shooting on the grounds of East High School in Des Moines, Iowa.
“The kids in that school are our community’s most precious cargo,” Des Moines police sergeant Paul Parizek told KCCI. “The medics and the firefighters did an outstanding job getting up here. It’s sad, but we do train for this, we have to be prepared for it. This is why.”
The teenagers are in critical condition at a local hospital. Among the injured are two boys and one girl. Authorities have not yet released the names of the victims of the shooting, or any potential suspect.
“Our entire community is in mourning right now,” Des Moines Superintendent Thomas Ahart said on Monday. “We do not have young lives to spare in Des Moines”
Police say there is no threat to the public, and multiple suspects are in custody.
“That’ll be a piece that moves through the night that we’ll keep working on,” Sergeant Parizek added in regards to getting more information about the suspect.
Police were flooded with calls about the shooting, which took place outside of the school building itself. The shots appeared to have been fired from a moving vehicle, and shell casings have been recovered at the scene, according to Des Moines PD.
After a temporary lockdown, students were released from school on time after getting an “all clear” from authorities, according to Des Moines Public Schools.
“Des Moines Police and DMPS public safety have given East High School the all clear,” the district wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Students are dismissing on time.”
Tuesday classes have been cancelled, according to school officials. This is the first year since 1999 that Des Moines police officers haven’t been stationed in public schools. The city school board ended the school resource officer programme last year, out of concern that officers were disproportionately targeting people of colour for discipline and arrest.
Multiple streets surrounding East High were temporarily locked down as officers began to examine the crime scene.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives is assisting with the investigation.
In 2022, prior to the Des Moines shooting, there were at least 11 school shootings with injuries or deaths, according to analysis from EdWeek.
It’s part of an alarming rise in school violence, according to researchers.
Between August and December of last year, there were at least 136 reports of gunfire on school grounds, nearly four times the average level for that period in previous years.
