A 16-year-old student was shot Tuesday after stabbing an officer during an altercation at a Wisconsin high school, marking the state’s second school shooting in as many days, authorities said.
Details of the confrontation were still unclear, but police in the city of Oshkosh said the school resource officer fired his gun after being attacked in his own office, striking the teen at least once. Both were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
Authorities said no other students were injured and there was no threat to the community. The incident took place shortly after 9 a.m., local time, at Oshkosh West High School, about 50 miles south of Green Bay.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Police Chief Dean Smith declined to say what type of weapon the teen used or discuss a possible motive for the attack.
The shooting was remarkably similar to an incident Monday morning at a suburban Milwaukee high school, where police shot an armed male student who allegedly pointed a gun at an officer inside a classroom. The 17-year-old Waukesha South High School student was taken to the hospital in stable condition and no one else was injured, according to police.
Monday’s shooting happened after a student alerted a school resource officer that a classmate was carrying a handgun, authorities said. When the officer went to the classroom, a standoff ensued and the cop fired his weapon.
The investigation into Tuesday’s incident has been turned over to the state, which will determine whether the officer’s actions were appropriate.
Alexis Watkins, a freshman at the Oshkosh high school, told local ABC affiliate WBAY that a lockdown announcement through the intercom system sparked a frightening and chaotic scene.
“It was really scary,” she said. “They said ‘lockdown,’ but everyone was running out of the school. It was really bad.”
Superintendent of Schools Vickie Cartwright confirmed at the news conference that some students did choose to evacuate instead of locking themselves in their classrooms. She said the district’s security protocol calls for both responses depending on the threat.
Smith said police arrived at the school two minutes after the stabbed officer called for help through his radio. He praised the quick response by several law enforcement agencies and thanked parents and students for their patience during a chaotic day.
“This is a tragedy. This is something that no school wants to face,” he said. “But, together, we’re going to come through.”
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on Monday also thanked first responders for preventing a potentially bigger tragedy in Waukesha.
“No student should have to go through a day like the one that students at Waukesha South went through today,” he said in a statement Monday. “And no parent should have to go through a day like the one those students’ parents had today.”
