Alpine, texas
Authorities did not release a possible motive for the gunfire that erupted shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in Alpine, a town of 5,900 about 220 miles southeast of El Paso.
“We’re still in shock,” Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson said at an afternoon news conference.
The sheriff said the family of the girl who died had moved to the Alpine area six months ago.
Dodson earlier told radio station KVLF that the injured student ran outside seeking help and was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life threatening.
Dodson said a federal law enforcement officer who was responding to the incident was shot in the leg when another officer’s gun accidentally discharged. The federal officer was transported to a hospital in Odessa, Texas.
The shooting prompted a lockdown at Alpine’s three public schools, which were later evacuated.
The school district declined comment, saying it would release a statement later. Alpine police referred to its Facebook page for updates, but none had been posted as of Thursday afternoon.
Law enforcement officials were also dealing with a series of bomb threats made in the wake of the shooting. They said they don’t believe there was a connection between the threats and the shooting at the high school.
Authorities said threats were phoned in to Sul Ross State University and an Alpine hospital. There was also a threat at a motel in Marathon, Texas, about 30 miles east of Alpine.
“Right now, we have a nut,” Dodson said at the news conference of the caller, adding, “Basically, he’s what we’re looking for right now.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said earlier that he’s monitoring developments in the Alpine shooting and promised to provide support for law enforcement agencies investigating the matter.
Dodson told a local news station that police were first told about the shooting because the police chief’s wife is the school principal. When police went inside, they found what appeared to be a victim as well as a firearm.
“The victim at that time we thought was a victim actually turned out to be the shooter, appears to be the shooter,” Dodson told KWES, an NBC affiliate in West Texas, in an interview streamed live on Facebook just after 11 a.m. local time.
This person was dead from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound, Dodson said.
“Looks like she shot another individual, and that individual had gone out into the street,” where she was picked up by people in the area and taken to a local hospital, Dodson said.
Alpine school district officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment, only saying that all athletic events scheduled for Thursday had been canceled.
The Washington Post contributed reporting to this story.