By Aria Jones
A student wounded another student in a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southeast Oak Cliff on Friday, officials said.
The shooting happened in a classroom, and the wounded student was shot in the upper thigh, a non-life-threatening injury, officials said. The student suspected in the shooting is in custody, officials said.
”This is a very, very, very hard day today, and I’m standing here with more than just a heavy heart,” Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said at a news conference outside the school Friday afternoon as speakers sounded in the background, calling names for students to reunite with their families.
Elizalde said people in the classroom, mainly the teacher, helped “avoid additional tragedy.” That teacher, a “very humble individual,” directed the shooter away from the facility, taking care of the wounded student and ensuring the shooter did not enter other parts of the school, she said.
The suspect was captured near the stadium on campus. Police have not yet established a motive for the shooting, said Dallas ISD police Chief Albert Martinez, but the incident appeared to be only between the two students, whom he said he believed could be 17 or older.
It is not clear how the weapon, which Martinez said was “basically a handgun,” got into the school but it was recovered, officials said.
Shooting disrupts classes
Elizalde said that, within minutes, the facility at the campus was secured, adding that Dallas ISD police, Dallas and Hutchins police and Dallas Fire-Rescue responded. Wilmer Mayor Sheila Petta, state Rep. Carl Sherman and Dallas ISD trustee Maxie Johnson all arrived to provide support and help as the school worked through its reunification process, she said.
Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said crews responded just after 10:35 a.m. to the school in the 5500 block of Langdon Road. A Dallas police call log showed nine units also responded to the school about 10:45 a.m.
By 11:15 a.m., Dallas ISD officials had posted on X that students and team members were safe.
At about 12:50 p.m., the district said parents and students were being allowed to reunite at the main gym on campus. District officials also said counselors were on-site and available for anyone needing support.
Parents relieved but have questions
Shareese Johnson, mother of 16-year-old Legend Williams, a 10th grader at the school, said she and her son’s father were relieved.
“This is a phone call a parent never wants to get, [that] there’s something happening at their child’s school, that there’s a shooting and it could possibly be your child involved,” Johnson said. “You don’t want to be a part of that. To know that he’s OK, it’s a great relief. It’s just overwhelming. And we’re just blessed that everything came out OK.”
Christopher Williams, Legend’s father, said he was glad his son was out of the school and that he hadn’t received any call, text or email from the school about what happened.
He said he found out when his son told him “they’re shooting up the school.” Legend said he waited out the shooting in the girl’s locker room.
”No parent wants to witness their child get shot or hear about their child get shot, or even be put in that predicament at all,” Williams said. “Right now in this moment, I’m glad that he’s out of there. But he will not be coming back here.“
School security questioned
Johnson, Legend’s mother, said the school has security, metal detectors and wands, but she believes a lot of students just walk around the metal detectors in the mornings.
A 10th grade student, 16-year-old Angelica Partida, also spoke about security at the school and said she doesn’t believe the clear backpacks students bring to school are opened or checked.
Martinez, the police chief, said officials would look into allegations that students don’t use the metal detectors at the school or don’t have their bags checked. He said there are alternative methods for the school’s security to ensure safety.
He said campuses have their own security teams, doors are checked to be sure they’re locked and audits are performed by several agencies.
“We will utilize our state resources,” Martinez said of the shooting. “The FBI has already been called … whatever resources we need to examine and really analyze this … to determine how this came about.”
Wilmer-Hutchins High School serves students in ninth through 12th grades and is named after the communities of Wilmer and Hutchins. The two towns formed their own independent school district, which Dallas ISD took over in 2005, according to the Dallas ISD website.
Roughly 1,000 students attended in the 2022 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Elizalde, the superintendent, said the school does have vulnerabilities, with so many entrances, and the chief will be working with the school to identify those vulnerabilities.
She said the chief will lead an “after-action study and report” to understand the lessons learned and share those practices with other campuses to “stay proactive.”
District spokeswoman Robyn Harris offered reassurances to families when she spoke to The Dallas Morning News shortly after the shooting and as she headed to the campus.
“We do not want parents to feel any sort of fear or alarm as we understand that it can be,” Harris said. “But right now we want them to know … everyone is safe. There is no current threat. And we will plan to share more information as soon as we kind of understand a bit more.”
Harris said she spoke with the school’s principal, who she said sounded calm, which is reassuring.
“That also gives me even more confidence that the students and staff there, the team that was there, are in great hands,” Harris said. “While there is something that did transpire, I have every bit of confidence that it was done in a way that was handled with care.”
‘Unacceptable and unimaginable’
Elizalde called the shooting “unacceptable and unimaginable,” and said at the news conference that she is refusing to normalize the incident. It’s an issue happening at schools across the country, she said.
“We can and we must eradicate these types of situations,” Elizalde said. “We must all come to grips with the fact that the solution is a collective responsibility. This is not something that a school can individually do. It is not something a neighborhood can individually do.”
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose district encompasses the school, said in a written statement that the shooting is a “tragedy” and the impact on students’ academic success and mental health is “devastating.”
“My heart and thoughts are with the student injured by this shooting, their family, and all the students and staff traumatized by yet another incident of gun violence in Texas schools,” Crockett wrote. “While it is a blessing that this incident did not escalate to the level where any students or staff lost their lives, it underlines how gun violence is becoming commonplace in our classrooms.”
Elizalde said that the community must work together to address the issue.
“When families send their children to school, just as I have sent mine to school, they should not have to worry about the safety of their children,” Elizalde said. “I take that very seriously. We have work to do.”
Staff writers Zaeem Shaikh and Jamie Landers and staff photographer Juan Figueroa contributed to this report.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
