SAN ANTONIO -- An outdoors end-of-school party was over before it could really ever begin Thursday after a student was shot while playing on the football field.
Zachry Middle School officials abruptly cancelled the event and kept students inside the building afterward.
“We went into complete lockdown for about 30 minutes and a modified lockdown for about an hour after that,” Northside ISD spokesperson Pascual Gonzalez said.
School officials said the victim, an eighth-grade boy, had entered the nurse’s office suffering a stinging wound around 10 a.m. Thursday. The nurse identified it as a BB or pellet wound and alerted authorities.
Officials say the sniper was apparently holed up in a home near the football field. The alleged shooter was spotted by some students as they were hustled back inside for the subsequent lockdown.
San Antonio police joined Northside officers in patrolling the nearby neighborhood, and a 17-year old teenager is now a “person of interest.”
Police said the teen’s BB rifle was confiscated.
“It’s hard to say what the intent of the shooter was, but it’s very serious. You don’t aim a rifle at children at a playground,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not the best way to end school, but at least nobody was seriously hurt.”
Although no one has been arrested, NISD officials said the investigation continues.
