N E W O R L E A N S, Sept. 26 — A feud between two
students erupted in gunfire at a New Orleans middle
school today, leaving both in critical condition.
Police spokesman Lt.
Marlon DeFillo said it
appeared, based on
early police interviews
with witnesses, that a
13-year-old student who
had been arguing with a
14-year-old student
obtained a gun from
someone who passed
the gun through a fence.
The 13-year-old shot
the 14-year-old. Then,
the 14-year-old grabbed
the gun and shot the
13-year-old, DeFillo said.
The shooting happened
just before noon in a
breezeway between the
school cafeteria and the
main building.
Both students were
taken by ambulance from
the campus of Carter G.
Woodson Middle School.
They were taken to
Charity Hospital in New
Orleans, where
spokeswoman Jean Patterson described their condition as
critical.
Police spokesman David Bowser said there had been
several fights reported at the school in the past few weeks.
It was unclear whether the shooting was related to the
fights.
Parents Concerned
More than 100 parents lined up outside the school as news
of the midday shooting broke on television noon newscasts.
Some yelled at security guards, irate at the fact that a gun
was on campus.
One said recent violence at the school had made her
daughter fearful.
“She was afraid to come to school two weeks ago
because boys were fighting,” Veronica Lewis said as she
hugged her daughter Neshetta, 14, outside the building. “I
told her she’d be all right. Now I’m just afraid for my child.”
The school sits among modest pastel-painted “shotgun
style” houses in the New Orleans’ uptown area, a racially
and economically diverse part of town where low- and
middle-income homes sit close behind the stately mansions
that line St. Charles Avenue.
Mike Smith, 14, a 7th grader who said he was nearby,
said students heard gunshots, panicked and ran inside the
school.
“I heard it and everybody started running. Everybody just
ran,” he said.
Smith said teachers made them stay inside classrooms
until they were allowed to leave.
School superintendent Alphonse Davis said classes at the
school would be canceled for the next three days in what he
called “a cooling-off period.” However, the school would
remain open for students who want to talk to counselors.
Two or three police officers will be assigned to the
school, in addition to the usual 10 assigned to the
neighborhood, when classes resume next week, police said.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights res |
