Student shot, injured in park near Alger Middle School
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — An Alger Middle School student was hospitalized after being shot in the face in a Grand Rapids park near the school Tuesday.
The child — a 12-year-old, sources say — is expected to recover, the Grand Rapids Police Department chief said. He said the boy was conscious, alert and could communicate with first responders before he was rushed to the hospital.
“I am thankful to say that as of now, we’re being told that the injuries are not life-threatening,” Chief Eric Winstrom said. “But they very well could have been.”
Grand Rapids Public Schools announced Tuesday night that Alger Middle School would be closed Wednesday “to allow additional time for scholars and staff to process what happened today,” the district wrote in a release.
When students return Thursday, the school will have “crisis debriefers” for students and staff, according to the district. GRPS Safety and Security team is preparing to have metal detectors in use.
CHIEF: STUDENTS SOUGHT HELP TOGETHER
The shooting happened shortly after noon in the bathroom of the Alger Park splash pad at Edna Street SE and Blaine Avenue, which is on the same block as the school, both GRPS and GRPD confirmed. A student was shot once in the cheek, the district confirmed.
Winstrom said that two students, both boys, ran to the front door of the school after the shooting.
“One of them was seeking help for his friend. The friend managed to make it to the front door here and receive that first aid from GRPS officials, who immediately called 911,” Winstrom said.
He said surveillance video shows school staff immediately started first aid and emergency responders were on scene “within moments.”
“It all went as good as a terrible and potential tragic and deadly situation could go. Once that child reached the front door of this school, it went as good as possible, and I don’t think it could have been planned any better as for a response,” Winstrom said.
The circumstances leading up to the shooting are unclear. Winstrom said that only the two students were involved, but could not confirm which child was holding the gun when it was fired.
“That is something that we are talking to both kids about,” the chief said. “I’m sure between the two of them … I think that we’ll be able to piece together the whole story, whether it was an accidental shot to the face, whether it was his friend playing with the gun or trying to make it function — either way, it looks to me on its face, and this is still preliminary, that it would not be a criminal shooting because very rarely do we see the shooter and the victim run together to the school to seek help like that.”
GRPS said both students are cooperating with police during the investigation.
LOCKDOWN AFTER SHOOTING
The school was locked down in a “code red” following the shooting, Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Leadriane Roby said in a letter to parents (PDF).
“Thanks to the quick actions of our team, no one inside Alger Middle School was in danger,” Roby’s letter said.
Students remained sheltering in place later Tuesday afternoon, with school staff and other resources available to them. The plan was for a “normal, staggered and orchestrated dismissal,” GRPS Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Public Safety and School Security Larry Johnson said.
He praised staff for following training and protocols.
Parents waiting outside the school for their children to be released expressed a range of emotions from panic to frustration. They said they found out about the shooting from their kids.
“I got a text message from my kids saying, ‘I love you,’ which in the middle of the day when they’re not even supposed to have their cellphone is about the bizarrest text message I could possibly receive,” parent Rebecca Newcombe said. “They’re not like that. So I was like, ‘Are you OK?’ And that’s when they said, ‘No, it’s a code red and they said it’s real this time. It’s not a drill.'”
Parents were relieved their children were not injured, but wanted more information from the district about what happened. They called on the district to take a deeper look at its security and emergency plans.
“I was surprised. My son called when we were just about to have lunch and was freaking out, said there was blood everywhere, somebody had been shot. And my response was, ‘Why isn’t the school calling me? Why am I getting this from my child?”” parent Michael Burt said. “I understand things move quickly in a crisis situation, but it was kind of shocking there wasn’t an immediate: ‘Hey, there’s been a shooting.’ And nobody even heard anything for a while about it. We came down immediately as soon as we got a call from him on his phone.”
Johnson said the district’s procedure is to notify parents of a lockdown once the situation is secured.
“We have to make sure we’re taking care of things as they were unfolding,” Johnson said.
Burt said the district should redouble efforts to keep guns away from schools and the surrounding areas, suggesting bag checks.
He also voiced concerns about the district having trouble keeping tabs on students, wondering why the two students were not in the building in the middle of the day.
“I work in loss prevention, security. I work with students as well, and if I didn’t have accountability of where the students were at any time, I would be held over a fire,” he said. “I don’t know why there were children outside, how they got a hold of it (the gun), even off of school grounds?”
Johnson said it’s unclear why the two students were outside. He hoped to find the answer to that question after speaking with them.
Although Alger Middle School closed Wednesday, some parents told News 8 they would not bring their children back for the remainder of the term.
“This is her last day,” Tyneshia Taylor said of her daughter. “This is not OK. It’s ridiculous. They need, should have more security. These kids are scared and it’s not OK for these kids.”
In a letter to parents Tuesday night, GRPS said the shooting was an “important reminder” for parents to talk with their kids about the dangers of guns. The GRPS Social & Emotional Learning team created a document outlining ways to discuss the danger and how to process violent incidents.
NOT YET KNOWN WHERE GUN CAME FROM
The police chief said the boys pointed the officers to a building in the park where the shooting happened, where they found blood, a shell casing and the gun where the students left it.
Winstrom said he believed it was a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. He promised his investigators would learn everything they could about it, including where it came from.
“We’re talking middle school kids, so we’re not looking at either of these kids as true offenders in this, even if they were in possession of this gun. These are kids we’re talking about. So we want to know where that gun came from and if there’s an adult that should be held responsible,” Winstrom said.
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He said investigators would be talking to the adults in the boys’ lives. He pointed to Michigan’s new safe storage law, which requires adults to secure firearms in their homes if children live there or are around often.
“Not only is it the morally correct thing to ensure that your guns are properly secured in your house, but it’s also the law now in the state of Michigan,” he said.
Acknowledging gun violence as a “complex” problem, Winstrom said GRPD, on average, has confiscated more than one illegally possessed gun every day this year. He said his department will be involved in a news conference with the U.S. Attorney’s Office later this week to announce a crackdown on illegal firearms.
“It’s hard to look at a middle school student with a gun and say, ‘This is your fault,’ and not look at this gun and say, ‘Where did this gun come from and how did this situation arise?'” Winstrom said.
— News 8’s Meghan Bunchman and Kyle Mitchell contributed to this report.
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