This week’s shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southern Dallas occurred after the suspected shooter was let in through a side door by another student, district officials said Thursday.
During a press conference, Dallas ISD Police Chief Albert told media the suspected shooter, who is a student at Wilmer-Hutchins, entered the school Tuesday afternoon with a 40-caliber weapon after another student opened a side door for him that was “locked and secured” — in contrast to an arrest warrant stating the door was unsecured.
Martinez confirmed at least four male students were shot and a fifth student suffered an injury from running and falling before the alleged shooter was in and out of the school in less than two minutes.
“I don't know that it was preventable,” Martinez said. “Sometimes when there’s a will there’s a way, but it’s our job to try to defeat that.”
But many questions were left unanswered as Martinez said he could not confirm whether the student had already been on campus before returning, how he got access to the gun, and what led up to the incident — which Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said, “was not random.”
“While we can't give specifics, what appears to be clear is that this was not random in terms of the intent,” Elizalde told reporters.
“The culpability of the other individual that created the vulnerability is still under investigation,” she said, referring to the student who initially let the suspected shooter inside the school.
Police, ambulances and firefighters were dispatched to Wilmer-Hutchins Tuesday at 1:06 p.m. after a 911 call reported gun shots at the school, less than five minutes after the shots were fired.
The victims' injuries ranged from non-life-threatening to serious. Their ages ranged from 15 to 18, and one was of an unknown age.
Elizalde also said the situation is “very, very complex,” and was not a failure of the staff or protocols.
The school will have a staff member guarding each of its 13 entrances during campus hours for the remainder of the school year, something Elizalde said is a vulnerability to the school after last year’s shooting.
It’s unclear if the school will continue this new security measure next school year.
The incident occurred just three days after the anniversary of a shooting at the school that left one person injured, in which district officials said at the time was a failure of not following security protocol.
Since then, Martinez and Elizalde both said the school had added new cameras to the building, monitored by a “security operations center.”
But student Sevynn Jones, an 18-year-old senior, told KERA News during a phone call Thursday she hasn't seen improved safety measures since the first shooting last year.
Jones said security does not thoroughly check bags when students first enter the school in the morning, and the school doesn’t always enforce a rule requiring students to wear clear backpacks.
Other students will go through one of the other 13 entrances to avoid being checked and going through a metal detector, Jones said.
"That's how they get the guns [on campus] and because other students open the door sometimes," said Jones, who was in a nearby classroom when the shooting started. "But still, the security guard don't watch how they're supposed to."
On the day of the shooting, Jones said she heard people arguing over a dice game in the hallway when the shots rang out.
"I feel unsafe every day," Jones said. "It's very easy because kids just open the doors and security are not strict on the kids opening the doors. So yeah, you could die any day."
Other students also told KERA News on Tuesday staff members were not enforcing the clear backpack policy, something Martinez did not confirm during Thursday's conference.
The 17-year-old suspected shooter is being held in Dallas County jail on an aggravated assault mass shooting charge and the investigation is ongoing.
Two of the victims have been discharged and two remained hospitalized for observation but are expected to make a full recovery, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue.
Martinez said he understand the heavy feeling families are feeling with the school’s now second shooting and are working to ramp up police, security and staff presence for the school’s 1,000-student body.
“We want them to be assured that we are keeping it safe,, but at the same time, we're going back to the drawing board,” Martinez said "What else can we do through technology, through personnel, through our procedures and our processes of how do we enhance this?”
Got a tip? Email Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
