(Washington) A teenager died Monday and two others were seriously injured after being shot outside a high school, police said, and “potential suspects” have been arrested.
Posted at 7:42 p.m.
The shooting took place at 2:48 p.m. local time outside East High School in Des Moines, Iowa, according to a statement sent to AFP by Sergeant Paul Parizek, spokesman for the local police.
Three teenagers wounded by the shootings were discovered on the spot by the police and were hospitalized. One of the victims died of his injuries, the other two continue to receive treatment, police said.
“The shots appear to have been fired from a passing vehicle,” the statement added.
Police said they had arrested “potential suspects” without having filed charges so far.
PHOTO ZACH BOYDEN-HOLMES, THE DES MOINES REGISTER VIA AP
The high school, for a while after the shooting, reopened and students were able to leave the perimeter, the city’s public schools department said on Twitter.
Shootings with many victims remain a recurring scourge in the United States, in schools, supermarkets or in the workplace in particular.
In early February, a student was shot dead and another injured outside a school in Minnesota. And on November 30, a 15-year-old schoolboy randomly targeted his schoolmates, killing four and injuring six.
In 2018, a shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida, when a former student fired an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, killing 17 people and injuring 15 others on Valentine’s Day, had sent shockwaves through the country and revived protests demanding tighter controls on firearms sales.
But blockages in Congress, under the influence of the arms lobby, make any major progress on the subject unlikely despite calls from politicians, President Joe Biden included, to toughen the rules on their movement.