Student arrested in high school parking lot shooting
HENRICO COUNTY
Virginia Randolph School, which offers alternative study courses and provides classes for troubled students, was placed on lockdown after the shooting.
Published: September 16, 2009
Updated: September 16, 2009
Henrico school officials locked down the Virginia Randolph Community High School campus this afternoon after a student gunman fired shots in the school parking lot.
Henrico police said the 12:30 p.m. incident was resolved within minutes when a suspect in the case was arrested a short distance from the school and the weapon, a handgun, was recovered.
“No one was hurt—no teachers or students,“ said Henrico Police Lt. Douglas Perry.
Perry said the suspect, a 16-year-old student at the school on Mountain Road in central Henrico, was arrested within 30 minutes of the shooting in a wooded area to which the guman fled on foot.
“There were multiple sightings,“ Perry said, noting that every police officer in the county received an image by computer of the suspect during the search. “It was remarkable what the technology can do.“
Several parents came to the school after initial news reports of the shooting, but were kept from the immediate grounds because of the uncertainty about the gunman’s whereabouts. The school was locked down until at least 4 p.m. Tonight’s adult education classes at the school were canceled.
An emergency message was sent to all contact telephone numbers of students at that time, said Mychael Dickerson, a school system spokesman. The message reported that there had been a shooting, a suspect was in custody and no one had been hurt, Dickerson said.
He said that school operations returned to normal and that counseling services will be available tomorrow.
Police refused to identify the suspect because he is a juvenile, initially charged with felony attempted malicious wounding and possession of a firearm on school property. Perry said charges may be upgraded as the investigation continues; he added that a specific student was targeted by the gunman.
Dickerson said that students at the school include special needs children as well as youths with a history of discipline problems, but he added privacy laws prohibit revealing if the alleged gunman was in either category.
It was not clear if the gunman carried a weapon inside the school. There is no metal detector system used to check every student upon entry, Dickerson said. But some students are occasionally checked for contraband with a hand wand.
Reader Reactions
It is sad that these students feel the need to cause or try to cause harm to fellow students and other people. I was amazed at the quick response time and amount of officers who responded in record time. Thankfully no one was injured and I hope that the student responsible is charged as an adult since he tried to be an adult by carrying a weapon to school. The parents should also be reprimanded in some form for their child having access to a weapon in the first place if it was bought from their home. I hope the parents will obtain the proper care to turn their child around and away from entering a life of crime. No child should be discriminated against in any situation but they should receive the proper medical attention to investigate why they felt the need to try and cause harm to a fellow human. There is a reason this child felt that he had no other alternative and no one should give up hope in helping him turn his life around. Hopefully he is starting to see the wrongs of his actions and he should be thankful he did not hurt anyone. He should at least apologize to all the students/teachers and extremely concerned parents of the children who attend Va Randolph for his actions. God Bless all the parents who were in this situation and I hope the students will be able to keep moving forward to receive the education they deserve and try to put this incident behind them.
I say that even if no one was hurt, he should be charged as an adult. This kind of thing keeps on happening because Family Court always gets these kinds of “kids” and thinks that “rehab” will make them “better”. Give me a break! Another kid pretending to be a bad-a$$, SOB is definitely not what we, Richmond or the next generation needs!
THANK YOU to the neighbors and plain ordinary citizens surrounding the school that were willing to get involved that assisted Henrico PD in catching this kid. I was listening to the radio and learned that several people in the neighborhood were calling in telling the police of his whereabouts as he ran from the scene.
As a parent, I want to say THANK YOU again.
MeToo: Gee, I can see right in my post where I said the teachers and other adults” and somehow you are careless enough to imply that I said children should have guns. How grown up you are.
Two, are you so short sided that you can’t fathom any scenario where an adult other than someone that has a badge (gee, a badge must empower some special sort of accuracy) may actually use a firearm in a responsible manner? How do you think police officers become good with firearms. One, many of them grew up in a culture with firearms (guess what, as KIDS!) and practiced as kids. And, they practice! Just like responsible adults that are concealed carry permit holders.
I know this is all really hard for people like you to understand that there is a way to solve our problems by creativity and freedom.
But for the grace of God no one was hurt…this time. The folks at Va. Tech, Columbine, etc., weren’t so lucky, thanks to the gun laws in place that people like you support. I’m sure there families feel better knowing that the police got there after everything happened.
RamblinMan- you are so right. If all those teachers and students had guns they could have started indiscriminately firing in the direction of the shooter. And with their magic bullets, they would find only the intended target and no innocent students would be accidentally caught in the crossfire or hit by a ricochet.
They could have gone from an event with no injuries or fatalities (thank GOD!) to an unnecessary bloodbath… not at the hands of the suspect, but those supposedly protecting themselves.
Yes, you make a compelling argument for CHILDREN carrying guns.
Now, I’m confused. Aren’t there gun laws that keep this sort of thing from happening? Oh, that’s right, criminals don’t obey the laws. Well, at least we’ve made certain all of the teachers and other adults are disarmed so the kids can be sitting ducks for a nut case like this.
Henrico PD are darn good
Now that is Henrico’s finest in action. Congratulations guys, you done good.
The should charge him with 240 counts, plus however many staff were present. Send a message, this is just not acceptable for any reason. Virginia has bed space for these types of offenders. Mental health issues should not be taken into consideration either.
Kudos to the local police for handling this matter in a quick and effective manner. Things could have gone much worse and those are the ones we hear about. It is nice to have some good news to share about them. Keep up the good work.
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