(Trends Wide) — At least four people were injured in a shooting Wednesday at Timberview High School in Arlington, Texas. The suspect is in custody and is being questioned by investigators, police said.
This is what we know so far:
What led to the school shooting?
At around 9:15 a.m. local time, the Arlington Police Department responded to reports of shooting inside the high school.
Although it is not clear what directly triggered the shooting, police say there was a prior confrontation.
“The incident occurred in a classroom on the second floor of the school,” Arlington police said in a statement. “Investigators believe there was a physical fight just prior to the shooting.”
The shooting was not a random act of violence and was committed by a student who was in a fight and drew a gun, Arlington Police Deputy Chief Kevin Kolbye said.
After the shooting, responding officers determined that the suspect left the school and “there was no longer an active threat inside the building,” police said.
What do we know about the victims?
The shooting left four people injured. Among the four, two were wounded by gunshot wounds and three were hospitalized.
All three hospitalized are expected to survive, Kolbye said.
One of the victims is a 15-year-old boy with gunshot wounds who is in critical condition, according to the Arlington police statement.
A 25-year-old man also had gunshot wounds and is in good condition, according to the statement. A teenage girl who may have been grazed by a bullet was released Wednesday night and is in good condition with an abrasion, Arlington Police spokesman Tim Ciesco said.
Authorities said about 1,700 students were at the school.
“Once the school security sweeps were complete, all remaining students at Timberview High School were safely evacuated and bussed to an off-site reunification center where they were released to their families,” said the Arlington Police.
What do we know about the suspect?
The suspect, Timothy George Simpkins, is in custody and will be charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to police.
Simpkins, 18, surrendered without incident Wednesday afternoon, police said, and his bond was set at $ 75,000.
Arlington police said they recovered a gun on “the streets of Grand Prairie,” a city just a few miles from the high school.
The recovered weapon was a .45 caliber pistol, Grand Prairie police said. The head of that force, Daniel Scesney, said he believes it was the weapon used in the school shooting, but that has not been confirmed. He said the gun has been turned over to the ATF for ballistics testing.
Trends Wide’s Raja Razek, Holly Yan, and Allison Flexner contributed to this report.
