Student, officers exchange gunfire at school

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Ind.

A 14-year-old boy who arrived at an Indiana middle school Thursday morning that was already on lockdown after a tip about potential violence shot out glass in a locked door and entered the school before exchanging gunfire with officers inside, authorities said.

The boy, who police said died inside the school from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, wasn’t a current student at Dennis Intermediate School in Richmond, said Indiana State Police Capt. Dave Bursten.

Bursten did not release additional information on the suspect or the weapon he used, but he said officials are extremely grateful that someone alerted them about the potential for violence.

That tip meant the school was on lockdown when the teen arrived about 8:20 a.m., Bursten said.

“We are very, very grateful for the person who made that call. Had they not made that call, there is no doubt in my mind that we would be having a much different conversation here right now,” he said at a news conference hours after the shooting. Bursten did not identify that caller.

No officers and no one else at the school were injured during the shooting in Richmond, which is near the Indiana-Ohio state line about 60 miles east of Indianapolis. The school has about 650 students from grades 5 through 8.

Bursten said that because of the tip, the responding officers “knew who they were looking for. They confronted him, he shot out the glass door, entered the school and the officers pursued.”

Richmond Police Chief Jim Branum told the Palladium-Item that police and school officials were notified that an armed person was heading to the school with the intention of hurting people.