Multiple People Wounded In Texas School Shooting

By Igor Volsky on Jan 22, 2013 at 2:15 pm

At least three people were shot in a shooting at Lone Star College in north Houston, Texas some time before 12:30 PM. Witnesses on the scene say the shooting may have escalated after a heated argument, possibly over a bad grade. At least two victims were caught in the crossfire and suffered “multiple gun shot wounds,” ABC13 reports, and are in serious condition. They were brought into surgery at Ben Taub General Hospital. One of the victims — who was shot in the leg — is a school employee. The other, a younger student, was found on the ground unconscious, with his eyes closed.

The college, as well as other neighboring schools, are on lock down. Lone Star College has been evacuated.

Witnesses report hearing at least 5 gunshots and say there may be two shooters, one of whom is in police custody. The shooter may also have been injured. Another shooter ran from the library into an administrative building and may have fled the scene into a wooded area. 10 ATF agents are on the way to help search for a second gunman.

Ben Taub General Hospital officials don’t expect to receive any more serious patients.

Appearing on Fox News, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who represents Lone Star, says she was in a gun violence prevention meeting upon learning of shooting.

The Lone Star website states that the college employs armed police officers and unarmed security guards. Five days ago, Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell (R) and 13 other Republican authors introduced legislation that would allow individuals with concealed weapon permits to carry firearms on campus. The measure failed in the last legislative session, but is now up for debate in the aftermath of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

KTRK-TV reports that the Lone Start shooting in Texas is the nation’s 5th school shooting in 2013. The U.S. experienced 49 shootings since Columbine in 1999.

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(Reuters) - Two students at a college near Houston, Texas, were struck by gunfire on Tuesday after shooting broke out between two people on the campus, a college official said on CNN.

One of the shooters was in police custody and the other had fled the campus of Lone Star College, college spokesman Jed Young said.

Young said the shooting erupted around 12:30 local time between two individuals, and it was unclear whether they were students.

The North Harris campus of the school was locked down.

The shooting occurred just over a month after a gunman killed 20 students and six staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

There have been three separate shootings at schools and colleges in the United States in the past two weeks.

On January 10, a student armed with a shotgun opened fire at a California high school, wounding a fellow student. A second student also received minor injures at Taft Union High School in Taft, California, about 30 miles southwest of Bakersfield.

On January 15, a student armed with a pistol opened fire at Stevens Institute of business & Arts in downtown St. Louis, shooting a school employee and then turning the gun on himself.

Also on January 15, two people were killed and a third wounded when gunfire broke out in the parking lot of a community college in eastern Kentucky. Authorities said that shooting was a result of a domestic conflict.