Update, 3 p.m. EST: The resource officer who intervened in the Great Mills High School shooting has been identified Deputy Blaine Gaskill.
According to reports, Gaskill is a St. Mary’s County Sheriff deputy and SWAT team member. Authorities said at a press conference following the shooting that Gaskill is a “tough guy” and that “he may have saved other lives.”
Original Story
A gunman at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Md., shot two students before an armed school resource officer stepped in. After an exchange of gunfire, the gunman is now dead.
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Great Mills High School Shooting
The New York Post reports that the suspect—who is also a student at the school—walked into the school at around 8 a.m. just before classes started. He produced a handgun and opened fire on a 16-year-old female student in the hallway. He then shot a 14-year-old male student nearby.
St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron told reporters that’s when a school resource officer opened fire on the suspect.
“When the shooting took place, our school resource officer, who was stationed inside the school, was alerted to the event and the shots being fired,” Cameron said. “He pursued the shooter and engaged the shooter, during which that engagement he fired a round at the shooter.”
The shooter also fired a round simultaneously. It’s unknown if the school resource officer killed the gunman, or if the gunman committed suicide, USA Today reports Cameron as saying.
“In the hours to come, in the days to come, through a detailed investigation, we will be able to determine if our SRO’s round struck the shooter,” Cameron added.
Aftermath
The female student is hospitalized in critical condition, while the male student is in stable condition. The school resource officer was uninjured.
The school was placed under lockdown after the students were evacuated, the Post says.
“You train to respond to this and you hope that you never ever have to,” Cameron said, according to NBC. “This is the realization of your worst nightmare — that, in a school, that our children could be attacked. And so as quickly … as that SRO responded and engaged, there’s grievous injuries to two students.”
Cameron added, “Now begins the second phase of this operation, and that’s the background and the investigation and the attempt for the school to return to normal.”