CORRECTED: Shooting reported on first day of on-site learning at Arkansas middle school

A shooting was reported at a Pine Bluff, Ark., junior high school on Monday, leaving one boy in serious condition and another in police custody.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the shooting occurred at Watson Chapel Junior High School, and that all campuses in the Watson Chapel district were closed down in its wake.

Pine Bluff Police Chief Kelvin Sergeant said during a press conference that both the shooter and the victim were 15-year-old boys who attend the school. No other people were harmed.

The victim was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Sergeant said.

The shooter was apprehended in a nearby neighborhood by a dog team, the Democrat-Gazette reports, and was taken to the Jack Jones Juvenile Justice Center.

District officials told the newspaper that the shooting was an “isolated incident” and that all students are now safe.

Parents were permitted to pick up their children at around 11 a.m.

This was the first day the town of Pine Bluff had returned to in-person learning amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“This was an isolated incident and all students are safe at this time. The parent of the student hurt has been notified so if you have not been notified by the school your student is safe and secure. The police are not letting anyone in and out of the buildings. You will not be allowed to come get your student at this time,” the Watson Chapel School District said in a statement on its Facebook page.

–Updated on March 2 at 2:37 p.m.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article relied on a report from ABC News in which local police said the student had died. The network then reported that local police said they had released bad information to the public.

Tags Arkansas gun violence school shootings

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