A boy who had a weapon on him outside of a middle school in Wisconsin was killed by police officers, according to law enforcement officials.
On Wednesday, the incident occurred outside a middle school in the Mount Horeb Middle School. The boy was a student of the district, according to Josh Kaul, the state’s attorney general who held a press briefing that afternoon.
Officers shot and killed the boy — who still hasn’t been named — before he was able to enter the school. No one else was harmed in the incident, Kaul said, and an investigation is still ongoing.
Authorities would only describe the student as a juvenile male. They didn’t provide his age or what school in the district he attended.
At the press briefing, Kaul wouldn’t answer multiple questions about the details of what happened after police responded to the scene. That included questions about whether the boy fired his weapon and what type of weapon he had, and whether he ever attempted to enter the school.
Multiple officers with Mount Horeb law enforcement fired their weapons, but officials didn’t say how many.
Following the shooting, students were kept inside their school buildings under a lockdown as officers remained on scene to begin the investigation. The students eventually were released slowly to their relatives.
The school district posted updates throughout the day on Facebook, hoping to bring terrified parents and community members some peace of mind.
According to local authorities, the only person who was harmed in the incident was the “alleged assailant.” Witnesses also said they heard gunshots and saw children running in the area.
In a post the district made to Facebook at about noon read:
“An initial search of the middle school has not yielded additional suspects. As importantly, we have no reports of individuals being harmed, with the exception of the alleged assailant.”
Mount Horeb is a small village that’s located about 25 miles west of Madison, which is the state’s capital.
A local business owner, Jeanne Keller, told The Associated Press that she heard what she thought were five gunshots while she wat at her The Quilting Jeanne shop, which is located about one block from the school.
She said:
It was maybe like pow-pow-pow-pow. It thought it was fireworks. I went outside and saw all the children running … I probably saw 200 children.”
Mount Horeb police said they weren’t able to provide additional information in the hours immediately after the shooting.
According to Steve Salerno, the superintendent of the Mount Horeb Area School District, the incident “could have been a far worse tragedy” if not for recent security upgrades.
Salerno said that students immediately reported to school staff that they say someone suspicious who was outside of the building, though he didn’t elaborate on that.
As he told reporters:
“It’s an experience that you just pray to God every day that you just don’t ever have to enter into.”
