Three East High students hurt in lunchtime shooting across from school, Wichita cops say
Updated 4:40 p.m.: Wichita police say they have arrested a 17-year-old boy and two 16-year-old boys in connection with a shooting just off of the East High School campus during the lunch hour Tuesday.
Of the students who were injured, two were 15 and one was 17. Both of the boys who were hospitalized for their wounds have since been treated and released, police said in a news release.
The 15-year-old boy who was grazed by a bullet in the common areas in front of the school was treated by the school nurse.
In addition to arrest and demographic information about the teens involved, police also released more details about the crime late Tuesday afternoon. Authorities now say a gray Volkswagen Passat with the three shooting suspects pulled into an alley north of Douglas off of Spruce. The teenage suspects got out and approached one of the 15-year-olds and the 17-year-old as they were walking.
The suspects fired multiple shots toward the boys, “striking them and East High School,” and then fled, police said in the release. The police later found and arrested them in the 1900 block of South Roanoke using their Flock license plate reader system and tag information that was provided by witnesses.
Police say the two teen boys who were shot ran to a food truck that was parked on Douglas in front of the school after the violence and met with officers there before being taken to the hospital.
“The investigation is ongoing and it will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office,” police said late Tuesday afternoon.
Original story: Wichita police say two East High students walking by campus during lunch break received superficial wounds in a shooting that occurred north of the school Tuesday afternoon.
A third student was grazed by a bullet as they were standing in a commons area in front of the school, police say.
Police did not release the ages or genders of the students involved during an on-scene news briefing with reporters, other than saying that they were teenagers.
The shooting suspects are also teens, Wichita police Chief Gordon Ramsay said.
But authorities did say the two students who appear to be the target of the violence were on the sidewalk north of the school when they were hit. One had a “through-and-through” gunshot wound to the leg while the other had a graze wound, Ramsay said.
The teen who was hit in front of the school reported their injury later to a school nurse, Ramsay said. That student’s wound was also superficial, he said.
“We do believe that this was potentially stemming from a beef that’s been going on for a while between the individuals involved, and this was not some random act,” Ramsay told news reporters at the scene.
He did not elaborate on the nature or subject of the ongoing dispute and did not immediately know whether the suspects were also students.
East High responded with an immediate lockdown. Police blocked traffic and later cordoned off Douglas in front of the school Tuesday afternoon, as well as at least one neighborhood street north of the school. Police say the shooting happened in the 100 block of North Spruce.
Police confirmed reports of at least two bullets hitting the school building. Both ricocheted off of windows, Officer Charley Davidson said. Police say the shooter fired toward the south, in the direction of the school.
But school officials say no one inside the building was hit or harmed.
A number of students were outside for the lunch break when the shooting occurred, Wichita Public Schools Direct of Safety Services Terri Moses said Tuesday afternoon.
Police say the two students who were shot on the sidewalk were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. The third student who received the bullet graze didn’t need treatment at a hospital, Davidson said.
Authorities say witnesses reported a vehicle leaving the area after the shooting occurred. That vehicle was later located somewhere on the east side of town thanks to license plate information provided by people in the area and the police department’s Flock Safety camera system, Wichita police Capt. Kevin Kochenderfer said.
Kochenderfer said the department was able to track the vehicle throughout the city using the camera system, and they now have in custody “persons of interest,” a vague term used by law enforcement to describe people who may be tied to a crime usually as possible suspects or possible witnesses.
Ramsay said three people in custody were later determined to be suspects in the shooting. Police also recovered a gun during their investigation, he said.
Police say the shooting was reported after noon by residents of the neighborhood to the north of the school, across Douglas Avenue. The two students who were shot on the sidewalk north of East High “ran back over to the school” after they were hit, Kochenderfer said. Police found shell casings to the north, he said.
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 2:09 PM.
