Students at Magruder High School reunited with tearful parents after a student was found shot and wounded in a bathroom. News4’s Shomari Stone and Jackie Bensen report.
A student at Magruder High School was found shot and seriously wounded in a bathroom Friday. The incident sent the school into lockdown for hours and caused worried parents to hurry to school grounds.
The wounded student, a teenage boy, was taken to a hospital in serious condition, said Sheira Goff, a spokesperson for Montgomery County Police in Maryland.
A Montgomery County Police spokesperson told News4 Saturday morning that the victim got out of surgery. He was listed as stable, but his condition deteriorated to critical by Saturday afternoon, officials said.
News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
A suspect was taken into custody, police confirmed.
Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus G. Jones said in a press conference Friday evening that the suspect is also a student.
With the help from tips, police located the suspect in a classroom. A gun was also found nearby from where the suspect was apprehended, police said. Chief Jones said they don't know if it's a ghost gun.
Officials are still investigating what may have led up to the shooting.
The lockdown began about 1 p.m. and continued for more than two hours after students would have been dismissed for the day. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) officials said that police determined that the school is safe and dismissal was set to begin between 5 and 6 p.m.
Initially, police were investigating whether the student's injury was self-inflicted or committed by someone else, Goff said. About 3:45 p.m., police were able to confirm that the student had been shot by someone else.
It was not immediately clear who found the victim in the school bathroom.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Chopper4 footage showed police cars surrounding the school and SWAT teams entering the building.
A parent who rushed to the school to try to pick up her son was turned away due to the lockdown, she told News4's Darcy Spencer.
"I just know I just heard it in the news, that there are helicopters there, and just, drove all the way from Frederick," the parent said. "Just wanted to be close to him, as close as I can be."
"This is just something we don't need to deal with. School's supposed to be a safe place for children," she said.
School's supposed to be a safe place for children.
Parent of a student at Magruder High School
It was a sentiment expressed by many of the parents and grandparents outside the school Friday afternoon as they sat and waited in cars parked on the side of the road and any nearby street they could find.
The school announced about 2:30 p.m. that dismissal would be delayed.
"We will notify parents when it is appropriate to come to the school to pick up your children. Dismissal must proceed in an orderly manner to ensure safety as we reunite families with our students," MCPS officials said in a message to parents.
MCPS officials said students who ride buses will be dismissed first. Parents who are picking up their children should do so at the stadium parking lot, they said.
Both Montgomery County Fire & Rescue and Montgomery County Police were called to the school, which is located at 5939 Muncaster Mill Road in Derwood.
"Our thoughts are with the student, and we wish him a speedy recovery," MCPS officials said.
Officials said they regretted initially sending an alert about the lockdown saying there was no immediate threat to safety.
"We regret using that language as the police continued to actively conduct an investigation inside the school," they said.
CORRECTION (Jan. 21, 2022; 2:26 p.m.): An earlier version of this story referred to Sheira Goff as a spokesperson for Montgomery County Public Schools. Goff is a spokesperson for Montgomery County Police.
Stay with NBC Washington for more on this developing story.
