MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 13-year-old boy was critically injured in a shooting Thursday morning at a Memphis K-8 school, and police say the suspected shooter was another student.
Police responded at 9:15 a.m. to Cummings K-8 School on Cummings Street near Walker Avenue in the Soulsville area of South Memphis.
MPD said one 13-year-old boy was transported to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in critical but stable condition.
“There’s no way a child should have a gun. This must stop,” said SCS Superintendent Joris Ray.
Police said the suspected shooter is a juvenile male, who is also a student at the school. That juvenile fled in a vehicle, but was taken into police custody after a search.
Officers were seen at a house on North Dunlap in North Memphis. Police confirmed that house was connected to the search.
Officers cleared the school building and the school was on a temporary lockdown as students were moved to another location, Shelby County Schools said.
Students were moved to Metropolitan Baptist Church at 767 Walker Ave. SCS asked parents to please bring identification with them when they arrived to pick up their children.
Ray said middle and high school students in SCS are subject to random metal detection. Schools have recently gone through active shooter training, he said.
SCS officials praised the school resource officer who was on the scene.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris tweeted about the shooting, saying, “We pray for the victim of this most recent shooting and all the young people who faced this unthinkable trauma. We also pray for the wisdom and courage needed to begin to curb gun violence. If we would demonstrate an ounce of the courage shown by the first responders who risk their lives when they answer these calls, we could do it. It’s past time.”
Mayor Jim Strickland called the shooting “heart-wrenching” and asked for prayers for the victim, his family and all those involved. Strickland also called for an end to gun violence.
“This shooting should have never happened,” Strickland said. “How could a 7th or 8th grader obtain a gun, bring it to school, and shoot someone? We must stop gun violence.”
The shooting at Cummings K-8 school in Memphis comes a week to the day after a mass shooting at a Kroger grocery in Collierville, a suburb of Memphis. That shooting resulted in 15 victims with one death, in what the police chief there called the “most horrific event” in the town’s history.
Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich said Wednesday that violent offenses committed this year by juvenile defendants include four murders, six sexual assaults of minor victims and 19 incidents involving the threat or use of a deadly weapon.
