A resource officer at a Wisconsin high school reportedly shot an armed 17-year-old student who refused orders to drop his gun and pointed it at responding cops on Monday.
The chaotic scene unfolded at about 10 a.m. when cops were called to Waukesha South High School for a report that a student took a gun to school, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Cops located the suspect in a classroom and tried to “deescalate the situation,” Waukesha Police Chief Russell Jack said at a later press conference.
But the student disobeyed their orders, he said.
“The suspect would not remove his hands from his pockets and continued to ignore officers’ commands,” Waukesha Police Chief Russell Jack said at a later news conference.
“The suspect removed his handgun from his waistband and pointed it at the officers. An officer was forced to discharge his firearm, striking the suspect.”
The unidentified suspect sustained “relatively minor wounds,” according to a fire commander at the scene.
The school was placed on lockdown before the standoff between cops and the student.
Students described to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a harrowing scene when they learned a classmate had a gun.
“These kids start running out from the classroom directly across us, and one of them goes ‘he’s got a gun,’” Andrew Oresick, 16, who was in the hallway at the time, told the paper.
Oresick said about 20 minutes later during the lockdown he heard three gunshots that “shook the whole room.”
Waukesha Schools Superintendent Todd Gray said, “This is clearly a superintendent’s worst nightmare.”
The town’s mayor, Shawn Reilly, described Monday as a “terrifying day.”