A child shot behind a DeKalb County elementary school late Thursday morning was playing hooky with two other youths and was wounded when he accidentally shot himself, police said.
The shooting happened in a wooded area about 50 yards from Montclair Elementary School, according to DeKalb Public Safety Director William Miller.
DeKalb police Lt. Pam Kunz said investigators had “determined that several juveniles skipped school with the intention of committing some burglaries.”
“At some point, while they were in the wooded area behind the school, a handgun was produced, and the 12-year-old was shot,” Kunz said.
Kunz said none of the youths attended Montclair Elementary.
The school was on lockdown, and Miller asked that parents not come to the school.
The boy, who Miller said apparently stayed out of school Thursday with two other boys ages 16 and 17, initially gave police a vague description of a man who he said shot him.
Miller said police had recovered a weapon from the scene.
The boy, who was shot in the buttocks, was taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite in "serious to moderate" condition, Miller said.
"He's not in critical or life-threatening condition right now," Miller said shortly after noon.
No charges had been filed against any of the youths as of Thursday afternoon, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Taneka Trice lives down the street from the school and has a 6-year-old in kindergarten at Montclair.
“We heard all the commotion, and a mother’s instinct, ‘Hey, our kids are down the road, let’s go see,'” Trice said. “Came up on all this and, terrifying.”
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