Indiana school shooting in Noblesville leaves teacher, student injured; suspect in custody
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- A teacher and a student have been injured and a student has been detained after a shooting at Noblesville West Middle School in Indiana Friday, authorities said.
A male student has been detained in connection with the shooting, Noblesville Police Chief Kevin Jowitt said at a press conference Friday morning. Now the teacher who stopped the shooting is being hailed as a hero.
Police received a call of an active shooter at the schools at about 9:06 a.m. Eastern Time. Noblesville Police Chief Kevin Jowitt said the male student asked to be excused and left a classroom. He then returned to the classroom with two handguns.
"Preliminary information is that a male student asked to be excused from his class. He left the classroom he then returned armed with two hand guns. That's where the activities occurred," said Noblesville Police Chief Kevin Jowitt.
A teacher and student were shot before the student was disarmed. Jowitt said the situation was resolved quickly and the school has a full-time school resource officer.
Police said the female student, whose name and age have not been released, was taken first to Riverview Health and then transferred to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis where she is in critical condition. Police said the teacher, 29-year-old Jason Seaman, was taken to Methodist Hospital where he is in good condition. Police said the alleged shooter was not injured.
Reis Darlington was about to make presentation to his seventh grade class.
"I heard gunshots upstairs and I didn't know what to think of it," Darlington said.
Moments later, an announcement went over the school's PA system to take cover.
"All I thought was, 'I need to pray for protection,'" said seventh grade student Christian Candanedl.
Friday afternoon, investigators said they could not release the exact details of the shooting and are not identifying anyone involved at this time, leaving many parents on edge.
"I want to know what happened. I want to know how a gun got into the school," said Kristin Young, the parent of a seventh grader.
A Twitter post from the Southern Illinois Saluki football team hailed Seaman as a "hero," saying he "took a bullet this morning to protect his students."
Seventh-grader Ethan Stonebraker said the science teacher likely prevented even more injuries by confronting the shooter, who he said pulled out a gun and opened fire after walking in late while the class was taking a test.
"Our science teacher immediately ran at him, swatted a gun out of his hand and tackled him to the ground," Stonebraker said. "If it weren't for him, more of us would have been injured for sure."
Parents held their middle-schoolers tight as they picked them up this afternoon.
"You think it's never going to happen in your community, in your city," said parent Todd Darlington.
And students who say they know the shooter, are still struggling to make sense of it all.
"It's just confusing because I know the kid. I've played with him on Xbox before. I've talked to him. I've sat by him a couple of times and I just didn't think he would do anything like this," Reis Darlington said.
The student is currently in custody and no charges have been filed at this time.
Search warrants have been issued and police are investigating how the student got his hands on the guns.
Police said that Noblesville West Middle School has been cleared. Police are investigating a threat at Noblesville High School but said it is just a threat.
"We have no reason to believe there is any kind of a threat connected to this incident anywhere else," Jowitt said. "We're also, however, aware of a secondary threat that's been made at Noblesville High School. We have multiple officers and a command post established at Noblesville High School and are diligently ensuring the safety of students and staff there. We have not received any information that this has been anything other than a communicated threat and again we are securing Noblesville High School and taking steps to ensure that it stays secure."
Noblesville West Middle School is located about 27 miles north of Indianapolis.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
