An Odessa High School student was grazed in the foot by a bullet Monday morning in the west parking lot next to Joe Coleman Field.
The school was placed on lockdown and the girl was taken to Medical Center Hospital’s emergency room. A hospital spokesman said Monday afternoon she was grazed by the bullet and in good condition.
Superintendent Scott Muri on Monday afternoon said five students were in custody and ECISD’s police department was taking the lead on the investigation.
He said the five are all ECISD students but not all OHS students. He said one gun was involved but did not know what type of firearm. He also said the investigation details a disagreement between the five started off campus.
“Violence has no place on a campus,” he said.
He also called for parents to partner with ECISD and discuss options other than violence with their school age children.
Earlier in the day
Ector County Independent School District Director of Communications Mike Adkins said earlier in the day it was 9:45 a.m. when they were notified of 911 calls of a possible shooting in one of the parking lots at Odessa High. “Our officers responded. Multiple law agencies responded. I want to pause and thank our law enforcement agencies. They have always responded well with our ECISD police and that made a big difference today. … We have law enforcement and first responders that were on the scene very quickly.”
Adkins said that the officers were able to find some witnesses right away who were very cooperative and let them know that some of the folks who were involved with the shooting had fled the scene.
The suspect is now in custody and Adkins said there was only one victim who was taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
“There was a student that was shot in the foot in the parking lot,” Adkins said. “That’s all I can release at this point. That student was transported with non-life threatening injuries.”
Other details about the victim or the gunman were not released including if the shooter was a student at OHS or if the students were in a fight or what kind of gun was used.
Adkins said that the officers believe the incident was “isolated to the people that were involved.”
“It wasn’t a larger thing aimed at the campus,” Adkins said. “But there were kids involved and those were the people that fled the scene when 911 was called and when officers arrived to the scene.”
Odessa High was placed in a lockdown immediately after the call but was soon moved to what is called a secure and hold.
“We were able to put the school in a lockdown immediately after that call but were able to, after talking to some witnesses, move that to what we call a secure which is not the same level as response as a lockdown would be,” Adkins said. “But we did keep everyone in a hold, wherever they were, when that first call came in. Police responded and were able to get some good witness statements and an investigation. It took that period of time to check the entire campus, which our ECISD officers did. They secured the campus and feel it is safe.”
Students were released at 11:30 a.m. when the hold ended where numerous parents were waiting to pick up their children outside of the high school.
“They began releasing students at the first lunch, which is at 11:30 so students will be allowed to leave campus as they normally would,” Adkins said.
SAS counselors were also present at the school.
“Any kids that need someone to talk to, we do have SAS counselors on campus and the school leaders who will be available,” Adkins said. “Of course, we will be here all day as we do imagine some kids will not be able to be picked up or will be on campus all day long and the school’s opened and we will be here for those students.”
Adkins said he believes the lockdown process worked as it was set up to.
“Yes, I do believe it did,” Adkins said. “Let me add one caveat to that that I haven’t already specifically talked to our police officers about the lockdown but we do drill that for that very reason so that when we call a lockdown in a situation like this, both students and staff have already practiced it and know what the response is expected to be and they’ve practiced it. I haven’t been told it didn’t work today but yes I do believe it worked although that’s something I need to ask police officers that specific question.”
Prior to students being released, worried parents were in the parking lot waiting to pick up their children.
Juan Guadalupe was waiting to pick up his son.
“Supposedly, from what we understood, there was altercation between two boys and one of them pulled a firearm and a girl got in the way and was shot in the foot,” Guadalupe said. “My wife called me and told me that there was a shooting at the school and that our son had sent her a screenshot of a Snapchat saying that someone had gotten shot.”
Odessa High students talked more about the lockdown after being released.
“I was terrified,” OHS freshman Destiny Little said. “I was calling my family.”
Others not so much.
“It wasn’t terrifying for me because I knew they (the cops) would solve it,” OHS senior Lance Little said.
Lance Little said everyone in his classroom was calm during the lockdown.
“They were all minding their own business and scrolling on tik-tok,” Lance said.
