Sylvie Claire / October 8, 2021
Four people were injured Wednesday in a shooting at a Texas high school when a student opened fire following a fight with another student before surrendering to police hours after the incident, local police said.
Three people were taken to the hospital, two of them with gunshot wounds, Kevin Kolbye, deputy police chief in Arlington, where the incident occurred, said at a news conference. He did not specify the severity of those injuries. The fourth, a pregnant woman, was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Three of the victims are students and the fourth is older, he added, though he could not say whether it was a teacher or a staff member at Timberview High School, which on Wednesday was serving 1,700 students in this city between Dallas and Fort Worth in North Texas.
Police were notified at approximately 9:15 a.m. of shots fired on the second floor of the school. Several units responded to the scene, but the shooter, Timothy George Simpkins, an 18-year-old student, had already fled in a car. The young man contacted an attorney and eventually turned himself in to police, Kevin Kolbye said at an afternoon press briefing.
He was being questioned by Arlington police investigators and is expected to be charged with assault with a weapon, police said. A Colt 45 pistol, which may have been the weapon used, was found on a street in Grand Prairie, a municipality next to Arlington, she said.
Kolbye said the shooting was the result of a fight between students in a classroom. We believe there was a fight between the student and another individual. A weapon was used, he said. This was not a random act of violence, he added.
The school was placed on lockdown and students hunkered down in classrooms while police conducted an orderly search for the gunman. Students were then evacuated by bus to a meeting place with their families.
School shootings have plagued American society since the Columbine, Colorado massacre in April 1999. These shootings are usually reported by the local media, but rarely make the headlines in the national media. Only a bloodbath, such as at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018, which left 17 people dead, is now causing a shockwave.