Gardena High School Shooting: 2 People Shot

LOS ANGELES — Authorities say a 17-year-old sophomore whose loaded gun went off at school when he dropped his backpack faces assault with a deadly weapon charges.

Los Angeles Police Capt. Bill Hayes says the teenager was arrested and booked in a juvenile detention center after the shooting Tuesday that injured two students.

Police interviewed the suspect and his mother for a couple of hours and both were cooperating. Hayes says the boy expressed remorse and his mother was concerned about the two victims.

Hayes says it's "plausible" that the shooting was an accident, but the boy was negligent to bring the gun to school. Two students were shot and one of them remains in critical condition.

The teenager was on probation for a fight at school last year.

Comments

[Ariel Bonzai]

06:33 PM on 01/20/2011

Forget the second amm. It's the 4th and 1st the schools are taking now.

[SangZe]

12:30 PM on 01/19/2011

Let them all be required to carry guns, teachers and students alike, no matter the level in school. They need to have the protection guaranteed by the constitution.

[Andy Clark]

01:01 AM on 01/22/2011

absolutely not. You want to be the first teacher to shoot a student under any terms? I don't,

[johnfkennedyjr]

11:42 AM on 01/19/2011

Proud to be American? Proud of what? This story is just one of thousands. This shooting and the thousands like it, accidental or not- guns in school shows how little pride we should have in what our society has become. Its shameful and despicable­!

[riverhouse]

09:19 AM on 01/19/2011

Too many guns in America. There is absolutely no reason for any civilian to own a handgun in this country.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

08:41 AM on 01/19/2011

***why is the sky blue??? See I can ask ridiculous questions that we all know the answers to***

The sky is blue because of the way sunlight is dispersed by the atmosphere.
 
It's a completely different question to mine.
 
Again, I ask, why would a student bring a gun to school?

[tbone99]

11:20 AM on 01/19/2011

I read the student with the gun in his back pack felt bullied and unsafe by other students according to students who knew him. Not an excuse - but you asked for the reason....

[jrfunkenstein]

08:31 AM on 01/19/2011

'Otherones Sole purpose of gun=kill?
I will admit that my gun's main purpose is to put meat on my table and bring the pleasure of hunting, but I also get a lot of enjoyment out of going to the range or shooting targets in the backyard. Yes, when I go hunting the hope is that I'll get something good for a nice cook-out with some friends; but it also provides me time to enjoy nature and the peace on our property. I dare say that my gun has many purposes other then killing (and animals, never people).'

Let's be frank bro; you hunt animals in order to kill them, not wound or maim them, and you do so with a tool designed specifically to do just that; to kill. You're not out hunting for any other purpose than to kill those animals, at least I hope not, and have no reason to suspect otherwise.

Whether the gun is aiming at a deer or a human being, the gun doesn't discriminate; if used in the manner it was designed, it will kill either one.

Simply because a gun can be used to blast clay targets as well, doesn't mean that this is what it was intended to do.

As a gun enthusiast, you know this perfectly well.

[helioszephyr]

03:53 PM on 01/19/2011

My question is... why would anyone find enjoyment or thrill (or call it a sport) shooting at any living thing? If you're hungry for meat, stop by your local WholeFoods as those civilized do. I'd like to think we're past neanderthal needs and methods of foraging for our provisions in the wild with a deadly weapon.

Hunting, as a sport, would be... drop your scope donning rifle, strip off your clothes, and chase that moose and wrestle him to the ground with your bare hands... now that's a "fair" sport. Good luck.

[AndyWright68]

07:31 AM on 01/19/2011

This is impossible. Gun control laws make this impossible. He is too young to buy a gun and schools are gun-free zones. So this could not have happened.

[PARepublican]

07:00 AM on 01/19/2011

Does anyone know if this gun was purchased legally?

[1differentdrummer]

06:41 AM on 01/19/2011

I have handled guns all of what passes for my adult life and I have never seen a gun that could discharge by being dropped. That's not to say they don't exist, but I've never seen a gun in that physical condition. I suppose if it was sufficiently worn out or altered there could be a possibility, but I doubt the story. Somebody help me out here.

[JohnnyAce Okeke]

06:04 AM on 01/19/2011

Gardena is a city that sits at the western end of the 91 Freeway a few miles south of South Central Los Angeles. It's very blue collar and low-income. Almost like Compton (which isn't far). My mom works there and I used to work there also. I used to live in Hawthorne which is right next door so I have personal experiences with this city. In fact, I was just there a few days ago.

Gardena High School (Go Panthers!! Formerly Mohicans; you can see why they changed) is very high in Black vs. Brown and Crip vs. Blood gang activity. I wouldn't be so quick to judge the shooter harshly because conflicting reports say he accidentally dropped the gun.

I met a Filipino guy from GHS who carried a glock in his JanSport. He didn't even know what type of gun it was. He just needed to get home safely because there was a major riot at school that day.

We have to look at WHY these kids feel that they need that kind of protection from fellow students. It's people who refuse to care that keeps a situation like this happening so often. I'm ashamed that MSNBC didn't go into depth like I am. While we focus on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the happenings in Arizona, it's easy to forget that Second Amendment Rights seem to go out of the window when the person's skin is dark.

{{-_-}}

[JohnnyAce Okeke]

05:33 AM on 01/19/2011

Why did MSNBC's primetime anchors pass right over this story? I don't care what CNN or Fox do because they're both corporate conservative entities, but I expect better from NBC. Perhaps because Comcast is coming to pull MSNBC to the right along with CNN and Fox.

*sigh* I'm losing my interest in cable news. {{v_v}}

[NonConforming]

02:59 AM on 01/19/2011

Good thing the politicians passed all those laws to make the perimeter of schools to be gun free zones so shootings won't happen anymore, since gangsters with guns always follow the law.

[NonConforming]

02:57 AM on 01/19/2011

Wow, I didn't know the tea party movement had a strong following in Gardena.

I'm sure the NYT tommorow will editorialize how we need to keep the dangerous ideas of the tea party movement out of our inner city schools so more shootings like this won't happen again.

[mgray34]

02:37 AM on 01/19/2011

Wow, how is that 2nd amendment workin for ya?

I wonder what GOP member will try to justify this one. Who was the one that said guns should be allowed in schools? Yeah, imagine several of these accidents happening in one day with that law?

What about the premise that guns don't kill people, people kill people? Hmmm. Well there was no shooter in this case huh?

[Otherones]

01:21 AM on 01/19/2011

I thought it was against the law in California to carry a concealed weapon without a permit & also to take guns to school. I guess if these things were actually against the law then this would not have happened, just the same as if we made guns illegal everyone who had guns (legally or not) would turn them in....