Scene near Noblesville High School on Friday, May 25, 2018, at Noblesville West Middle School in Noblesville, Ind., after a shooting on Friday, May 25, 2018. NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) – An Indiana middle school student armed with two handguns opened fire inside his science classroom Friday, authorities said, wounding a classmate and a teacher whose swift intervention was credited with saving lives.
The shooter, who had asked to be dismissed from the class before returning with the guns, was arrested “extremely quickly” after the incident around 9 a.m. at Noblesville West Middle School, police Chief Kevin Jowitt said. Authorities didn’t release his name or say whether he had been in trouble before but indicated he likely acted alone.
Seventh-grader Ethan Stonebraker said the student was acting suspiciously when he walked into the room while the class was taking a test. He said science teacher Jason Seaman likely averted a catastrophe.
Law enforcement officers walk outside Noblesville West Middle School in Noblesville, Ind., after a shooting on Friday, May 25, 2018. “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.”
The attack comes a week after an attack at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, that killed eight students and two teachers, and months after the school attack that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida. The Florida attack inspired students from that school and others throughout the country to call for more restrictions on access to guns.