Two students hurt, gunman dead after US school shooting in Maryland

World Today

LEONARDTOWN, MD – MARCH 20: Guardians of students from Great Mills High School arrive at Leonardtown High School to pick up their children following a school shooting at Great Mills High School March 20, 2018 in Leonardtown, Maryland. Early reports indicate two students were wounded in the school shooting and the gunman died at the scene. Students from Great Mills High School were evacuated to nearby Leonardtown High School following the shooting. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP)

Another school shooting in the United States, just five weeks after Parkland. Two students at a high school in the state of Maryland were shot. The shooter has since died, and a sheriff’s deputy who works at the school is being hailed as a hero for responding quickly and saving lives.

CGTN’s Jim Spellman reports.

Authorities said it was over in less than a minute.

As classes were beginning at Great Mills High School, about 115 kilometers south of Washington D.C., a student armed with a semi-automatic handgun opened fire. Two students were shot – one male, one female. An armed deputy assigned to the school responded to the shooting.

“He pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter during which that engagement, he fired a round at the shooter. Simultaneously, the shooter fired a round as well,” explained Saint Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy Cameron.

The deputy was uninjured, the shooter was hit and later died. It’s not clear if the gunman was killed by the deputy or committed suicide.

Students were forced to hide in classrooms as police searched the building. Authorities say the shooter had a relationship with the female victim but they don’t yet know the motive.

It’s the latest school shooting in a country still reeling from last month’s attack in Parkland, Florida that killed 17. Since then, students have led a wave of protests demanding action to make schools safer, but little has been done since the Parkland shooting to restrict access to guns.

“If you don’t think this can’t happen at your school, you are sadly mistaken,” said James Scott Smith, the superintendent of Saint Mary’s County Public Schools. “We are shaken, but we are very strong.”

Students at Great Mills High School are scared to go back, and their parents are equally worried.

Many of the students are expected to join students from around the country at a major protest in Washington on Saturday. They will press lawmakers to do more to make schools safe and to push for tighter gun control measures.