Los Angeles school shooting: Girl, 12, held after 'accidentally' shooting classmates with gun she 'thought was a toy'

A police cordon at Salvadore Castro Middle School in Los Angeles
AFP/Getty Images
David Gardner2 February 2018

A 12-year-old girl “accidentally” shot her classmates at a Los Angeles school with a semi-automatic handgun she reportedly thought was a toy.

Bullets sprayed around the classroom after the girl reportedly dropped her backpack and the gun inside it started firing.

The unnamed pupil was arrested and charged with negligent discharge of a firearm on school grounds. She reportedly sobbed and told a classmate: “I didn’t mean to.”

Video from helicopters showed a dark-haired girl in a sweatshirt being led away in handcuffs from Salvador Castro Middle School, in the district of Westlake. Parents and relatives gathered on a street corner, many crying.

A girl was seen being led out of the school in handcuffs

A 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head and a girl the same age who was shot in the wrist were in a stable condition and expected to recover.

An 11-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and a woman aged 30 suffered minor injuries from flying glass. A handgun was recovered at the scene.

Police who interviewed the girl said they believed the shooting was accidental. “The information suggests that this was an isolated incident,” Los Angeles Police Department said.

Horrified pupils leave the school in LA
AFP/Getty Images

A schoolfriend who was in the next-door classroom, Jordan Valenzuela, 12, said she was sobbing and repeatedly saying: “I didn’t mean to.” He said she told him: “I had the gun in my backpack and I didn’t know it was loaded and my backpack fell and the gun went off.”

Jordan told Associated Press that after the gunshot there was screaming and children in the other classroom banged on the connecting door. He and other pupils opened it and tried to help. He said he noticed his friend sitting at her desk with her hands over her face.

He added that: “She doesn’t do bad things, she just stays quiet.”

Another student told ABC News he believed the girl thought the weapon was a toy gun.

The incident took place at about 8.55am, shortly after the opening bell. The boy who was shot in the temple was “extremely lucky to survive,” according to a doctor.

“We do not know yet how our young person ended up having the ability to have access to a firearm and bring it onto campus,” said Los Angeles School Police Chief Steve Zipperman. Schools in the district conduct random checks for weapons with a metal detector.

Last month two students were killed in a shooting at a high school in Benton, Kentucky and a 15-year-old was injured by gunfire in a school in Italy, Texas.

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