A 14-year-old boy was shot and a teacher was injured at a middle school in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon but an armed officer was able to disarm the suspect minutes after the incident, officials said.
Police said the shooting took place shortly before 2 p.m. when a student fired several rounds in the courtyard of Price Middle School, a newer school southeast of downtown Atlanta.
Live video from NBC station WXIA-TV showed police, emergency vehicles and an ambulance swarming the area as crowd of anxious parents flooded toward the school.
Police said the wounded boy was taken "alert, conscious and breathing" to the hospital.
WXIA, citing school district and fire department officials, reported that he was shot in back of the neck. The wound was not considered life threatening. The teacher suffered cuts and bruises during the panic of the incident, police said.
A student at the school was in custody, police said. Atlanta Police Chief George Turner said a resource officer at the school, an armed off-duty Atlanta officer, was able to disarm the suspect shortly after the shooting.
Walker, who said her daughter is an eighth-grader at the school, told The Associated Press that she received a text from her daughter about the shooting.
"Ma, somebody's shooting and somebody got shot." Walker said. She jumped into her car and was thinking "just hurry up and get there."
The school was placed in lockdown, and all other students were safe, school officials said. Students were kept at the school for hours, but were reunited with their parents by about 5 p.m.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in a statement that he is very concerned about the incident and gun violence.
"Gun violence in and around our schools is simply unconscionable and must end," Reed said. "Too many young people are being harmed and too many families are suffering from unimaginable and unnecessary grief. I pray that the student who was shot today at Price Middle School in southwest Atlanta recovers quickly and can return home to family and friends."
Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis said the school has metal detectors and officials were still trying to determine how the gun got on campus
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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