Gunman killed in Maryland high school shooting

A gunman is dead after opening fire at a southern Maryland high school Tuesday morning in an attack that injured two other students, authorities said.

St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy Cameron said at a news conference that two victims were injured in the shooting at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Md. A female student was critically injured while the male student is in stable condition, he said.

An armed school resource officer responded to the shooting and fired at the gunman, identified as 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins, a student at the school, Cameron added. He said it is not yet clear if the officer’s fire was responsible for killing Rollins. The resource officer was not injured in the shooting.

“In the hours to come, in the days to come through detailed investigation we will be able to determine if our school resource officer’s round struck the shooter,” Cameron said.

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Cameron also said that “there is an indication that a prior relationship existed between the shooter and the female victim,” though it was not clear if the shooting was related to that relationship.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said he was closely monitoring the situation at Great Mills High School and offered his prayers for victims and first responders.

We are closely monitoring the situation at Great Mills High School. @MDSP is in touch with local law enforcement and ready to provide support. Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders.

— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) March 20, 2018

The shooting comes more than a month after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. left 17 people dead and 14 others injured.

Days after that attack, threats of a potential shooting circulated at Great Mills High School, according to the TheBayNet.com. Those threats prompted the school to take additional security precautions at the time, Dr. Jake Heibel, the school’s principal, said in a message to parents, the local news website reported.

The Parkland shooting reignited the national debate over gun control laws and sparked protests across the country. The March for Our Lives, a rally seeking to draw attention to gun violence, is set to take place in Washington, D.C., and other cities on Saturday.

Updated at 2:34 p.m.