"That resulted in one of the other individuals pulling a gun and firing several shots," said James Golden, a school district spokesman.
The 16-year-old was shot twice in the head, once in the chest and once in the back as he was attempting to enter a school bus. Incredibly no one else was injured but one bullet struck the grill in front of the bus and became lodged in the engine block.
"The suspect shooting I can tell you is identified as 17 years of age, about 5'11"," said Inspector Scott Small.
The gunman, police say was accompanied by two other males who were all last seen running through the cemetery across the street from the school. Police K-9 units searched the grounds but were unable to track them down.
"East Detectives have already developed names of possible suspects, but we can't release those names at this point because we're not sure how they fit in," said Inspector Small.
Police say the incident stems from a fight that broke out a week ago. While it's unclear what the fight was about school officials were outraged that it would escalate from fisticuffs to a shooting outside a school.
"It's disturbing and it's another sad example of the level of violence that we're seeing in our community and here's a situation in broad daylight in which 1000 students are being dismissed from school and you have this kind of violence," Golden said.
The 16-year-old, a sophomore at the school is listed in critical condition. Meanwhile the 17-year-old gunman was last seen wearing a dark hooded sweat shirt and blue jeans.
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