A student has been shot dead by police after opening fire on officers responding to a report of a gunman at a Tennessee high school.
Police found the student in a bathroom at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville on Monday.
They ordered him out, but he would not comply, and he reportedly opened fire, officials said. Police fired back.
The student died at the school, and an officer was wounded and rushed to hospital for surgery, authorities said. No one else was hurt.
"It's a sad day for Knoxville, and it's tough for Austin-East,” Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said.
The shooting comes as the community reels from off-campus gun violence that has left three Austin-East students dead this year.
Knox County Schools restarted in-person learning in January.
But Austin-East Magnet High School went back to virtual instruction briefly in February after the spate of shooting deaths of students. The school will be closed again on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Speaking outside a hospital, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon told WATE-TV that she spoke with the wounded officer and he was conscious and in good spirits.
Kincannon, a former Knox County Schools board president, spoke at a February press conference about the gun violence that took the lives of three Austin-East students less than three weeks apart this year. Two of the victims were 15, and the other was 16.
"I know that school is a safe place," Kincannon said at that time, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
"It's a place where people are learning. ... The issues with violence are happening in the community, and it's affecting kids when they're outside of the school.
“That's why we are focusing our efforts to protect the innocent, protect the school, protect the children and students and staff."
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The newspaper reported that the school was adding three school resource officers and stepping up patrols around dismissal time.
