Atlanta police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a minor student at Benjamin E. Mays High School who is charged with shooting four other students last week, Atlanta Public Schools police chief Ronald Applin said Monday.
The unidentified suspect is not in custody, Applin said.
The shooting occurred in the school parking lot just before 4 p.m. Wednesday as students were being dismissed. The victims — all males — were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Their injuries were not life-threatening and Applin said they are all recovering well.
Officials did not discuss a possible motive for the shooting. Applin credited APS security, who were on campus at the time of the shooting, for responding to the incident quickly.
“One of the things that we looked at a few years ago, after seeing some other issues in other districts throughout the country, we decided to go ahead and give every single one of (our officers) a tourniquet,” Applin said, adding that officers had to apply tourniquets to two of the victims.
Applin said the suspect has been charged with four counts of aggravated assault, one count of possession of a firearm by a minor and one count of possession of a firearm on school grounds. He said the Atlanta Police Department took the lead on the investigation with assistance from the APS police force.
“We looked through a lot of video, a lot of information that we were getting from some of the people who actually saw what took place and we were able to put together enough to get warrants for the arrest of the person responsible for this,” Applin said.
There is only one suspect in the shooting so far, Applin said, although the investigation is ongoing.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Applin announced the arrest warrant after APS interim Superintendent Danielle Battle gave the annual “State of the District” address Monday morning. Battle briefly referred to the shooting in her remarks.
“We are thankful for the injuries sustained to our students are not life-threatening,” she said. “We are strong in APS and we will continue to review our safety and security protocols to ensure we protect those in our care. It is critical that parents talk to their children, talk to their children about decision making and doing the right thing. Parents and caregivers, we need your help.”
Applin, an APS graduate himself, said his initial action when he received news of the shooting was to get control of the situation. However, he said, once the investigation was underway, frustration set in.
“Some kids today seem to think the only way they can solve problems is using a gun, and that’s just not the way to handle things,” he said. “It’s total disregard for the life and safety of others. It’s very frustrating. Very, very frustrating.”
Applin said APS is examining its safety protocols and making adjustments to try to prevent similar incidents from happening.
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