12-year-old held after US school shooting

Thirteen year old Kimberly Macias cries as she sees schoolmates at a vigil for the victims in Roswell. Picture: The Albuquerque Journal, Roberto Rosales

Thirteen year old Kimberly Macias cries as she sees schoolmates at a vigil for the victims in Roswell. Picture: The Albuquerque Journal, Roberto Rosales

Published Jan 15, 2014

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Los Angeles - A 12-year-old boy opened fire on two fellow students at a middle school in Roswell, New Mexico, on Tuesday, news reports said.

Eyewitnesses at Berrendo Middle School said they saw a male student shoot a boy in the face, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

The victim's age was unclear and his name had not yet been released.

A 13-year-old girl, Kendal Sanders, was shot in the arm, family members told the newspaper.

Both victims were airlifted to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, a spokesman for UMC Health System told the newspaper.

The boy was in critical condition, and Sanders' condition had been upgraded to serious.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez told a news conference the shooter was 12 years old and in police custody.

New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said the shooter was taken into custody by a state police lieutenant who was dropping his child off at school.

Police believed the 12-year-old acted alone, Kassetas added.

“I believe we have the only individual in custody who's responsible for this,” he told media.

Odiee Carranza, an eighth grader at the school, told the Albuquerque Journal the shooter bumped into her as he hurried to the school gymnasium.

She said she saw him take a shotgun out of a musical instrument case.

“Then he shot up in the sky, then dropped the gun, and then some teacher grabbed the kid that had the gun,” Carranza said, according to the report.

According to stoptheshootings.org, an online school shooting database, there have been 387 school shootings in the US since 1992.

One of the worst occurred in December 2012 when 20 children and six educators were shot dead at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Sapa-dpa

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