Three students were killed Tuesday and eight other people were wounded in an afternoon shooting at Oxford High School, law enforcement officials said.
According to The Detroit News, The shooter, an unidentified 15-year-old sophomore, is in custody, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe added during a news conference. He is not injured. “Deputies confronted him, he had the weapon on him and deputies took him into custody,” McCabe said, adding the weapon was a semi-automatic handgun.
“The whole thing lasted five minutes.” McCabe, during a 5 p.m. news briefing, said the students killed include two females, ages 14 and 17, and a 16-year-old male. Of those wounded, two are in surgery and their conditions aren’t known.
The other six are in stable condition, “with various gunshot wounds,” he said. The wounded are at three hospitals; McLaren Lapeer Region Community Medical Center, McLaren Oakland in Pontiac, and St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac.
The Daily Mail stated that police said in an update Tuesday afternoon that the teen might be tried as an adult for deaths of a 16-year-old boy and two girls, aged 14 and 17.
Upward of 20 shots were fired by the teen as 911 operators received more than 100 frantic 911 calls. Masses of stunned students, some crying and others huddled together, emerged from the school following the massacre. ‘It’s a very tragic situation, obviously,’ Undersheriff Mike McCabe said during a press conference.
‘You never want to prepare for something like this, but you have to, and the school district has done a wonderful job preparing.’ Oxford Community Schools superintendent Tim Throne had little to add at the scene, saying he wasn’t sure which students were shot and which one pulled the trigger. ‘You certainly can pray for our families here in Oxford and our students,’ he said. ‘I’m learning information in real-time just as you are. ‘Of course, I’m shocked.’