Student who shot 4 at Dallas high school was targeting specific student, school police chief says

DALLAS (AP) — The student who shot four students when he opened fire at a Dallas high school this week was in and out of the building in less than two minutes and is believed to have been targeting a specific student, the school district police chief said Thursday.

The 17-year-old suspect was able to enter Wilmer-Hutchins High School at 1:01 p.m. Tuesday when another student opened a locked side door, Dallas Independent School District police Chief Albert Martinez said at a news conference. The school has metal detectors at its main entrance, he said.

The suspect was taken into custody several hours after the shooting. He remained in jail on Thursday on a charge of aggravated assault mass shooting.

Martinez said that they believe there was “a dispute taking place,” but they do not yet know what led to the shooting.

“We don’t have that information as to the why, the motivation,” Martinez said.

Martinez said they are looking into “how deep” the culpability is of the student who opened the door.

Four male students were shot and were taken to hospitals, according to officials. All of those injured are all expected to make a full recovery, Martinez said.

The shooting drew a large number of police and other law enforcement agents to the roughly 1,000-student campus.

The suspect parked his vehicle at the school just before 1 p.m., Martinez said.

An arrest warrant said that after the suspect was let into the building, he walked down a hallway until he spotted a group of students. The arrest warrant says he then displayed a firearm and began firing “indiscriminately” before approaching a student who was not able to run and walking toward that student and appearing to take a point-blank shot.

The suspect’s bond was set at $600,000. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.

At the same school last April, one student shot another in the leg.