Eyewitness describes Gardena High School shooting

A Gardena High senior who was sitting next to students who were shot described a scene of chaos and fear inside the classroom when gunfire erupted Tuesday morning.

Miguel Lopez, 17, said he was in his health class when a gun went off as a male classmate was reaching into his backpack. The student, whose name Lopez did not know, was not pointing the gun at anyone, he said.

Two students sitting next to him in the rear corner of the room were shot, Lopez said. A boy was grazed in the shoulder. A 15-year-old girl next to him was shot in the temple.

"I'm scared and I don't know what's going on," Lopez told the Los Angeles Times by cellphone. Lopez was sitting with classmates inside the dean's office, where they had been escorted by security after the shooting.

Immediately after the gun went off, he said, the student ran out of the classroom. His teacher, Mrs. Jones, began screaming, he said. She ordered everyone out of the classroom just as school security was arriving.

As Lopez was running out, he saw the girl, who school officials said is in critical condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

"She kind of was crying. She fell back into her chair and fell on the floor," he said.

Lopez called his mother, in tears.

"He was all freaked out," said his older brother, Hector Lopez, 20, who was waiting outside Gardena High School. "He was traumatized. He saw the girl who was shot in the head. I told him to relax, to calm down, to stay away from whatever's going on."

Miguel Lopez said, "I'm shaken up and I'm worried. Right now, it's a weird quiet inside the dean's office. No one knows what's going on. … I don't even know what to say."

LAUSD spokeswoman Lydia Ramos confirmed Lopez's account, noting that the student did not open fire. Rather, he came to school with a gun in his backpack. When he placed the backpack on a table in his health class, the gun went off. He ran out of the classroom, with his backpack, she said. He dropped the backpack with the gun in it, then hid in another classroom before being taken into custody.

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-- Sam Allen in Gardena and Andrew Blankstein

Comments

[kgoddess]

And just how/why in the world did he have a gun at school? Whose gun is it? I thought there were metal detectors/backback searches?

[Matthew]

Wow, that is chilling. Another reason we need to fix the gun laws here. Why do we need guns unless your police, seriously. I'm a senior in high school and while my school is in a better neighborhood, this still is a little freaky.

[Distillerman]

Was Gardena High School in Sarah Palin's crosshairs too?

[PissedOff]

I have a child at Gardena High School and as glad as I am to hear that my child is fine. I am deeply sadden to hearn about the girl who was shot in the head.

The crazy thing is that there is all kind of police all over this school all the time and they even have a police office as soon as you walk through the front gate. I know the poilce and security cant be everywhere but this school really needs to get a metal detector at the front gate and make every student only enter through the front of the school or also make security wand kids at the other entrances.

The Principal is not as great as the teacher on tv said. In fact I find him to be very "Too Busy" to talk with parents or to deal with the teachers in his school or deal with any real issues.

I wonder what will he do know that he sees that our kids are not safe at that school.

My prayers are with the injured.

[why]

why did he have to bring a damn gun to school?????
and what the hell is a damn 15yr old doing with a gun?????

[Sad]

Why are students not checked for weapons before they enter schools? This school is in gang territory.

[Natalie Johnson]

This is why we must bring back public humiliation as a punishment for defiant teens: he should be publicly flogged - 15 lashes on his bare back with a cat-0-nine tails, on CBS at 6 and 11, and promised if ever a next time its 15 years in prison. Unfortunately no American adult has the guts to discipline their kids and that's why this country is rife with negligent, anti-social, and selfish parental imbeciles and their deadly vile offspring running amok in our midst.

[Don Quixote]

Men kill men, not guns? Hmm...

[August]

How HORRIFYING for that girl's family...

[Juan R.]

THIS is exaclty why YOU should keep at least a shotgun in you home. Maybe THIS 'KID' would have been the next burglar to you home.

[James]

What a tragedy.

[Michelle]

Yet more proof that everyone should come to school armed, and Oh yes, guns don't kill people, people kill people (people with guns that is).

[Michelle]

The NRA is really what's running this country, so after the shooting in Arizona, and countless other shootings, including the one today, they are still defending allowingemi-automatic weapons and carrying weapons openly. Anywhere!
Its about time that we revolted against the NRA and took back our coutry, so we don;t have to worry about our kids safety of our own.

[scott]

Sadley, another tradegy. I hope that girl has a full recovery as well as the male classmate. I wish there was a solution to prevent these problems.

[Baron]

It is very easy to make an opinion about how bad parenting can cause this type of incident, remember that it can happen to anyone. so think about the statements before you blog them, different reasons for different situations, Gang Violence is a serious problem in L.A county, instead of blaming parents and teachers, why not involve the city council, mayors and Lausd. if you want to change people you have to change the community.

[kristen]

i hope that those kids that got hurt are gonna be alright. im really concerned with why the 17- year-old had a gun in his backpack & just came to school with it. jeez..of course something bad would happen.

[TexasGal]

Guns do NOT accidently go off! That is a myth that is spread time and time again by the liberal media. It started back when cops would commit suicide, and to save face, police offices would report that the officer's gun accidently discharged while he was cleaning it. But it was really not true. Guns do NOT accidently go off. You have to pull the trigger. The first shot will be a very long pull because it is a double action. The second shout can be very fast because it may be a single action shot. I do wish the media would educate itself about hand guns.

[Flutterby]

It's all Sarah Palin's fault !!!

[nexttech]

where the hell does it say the gun was a revolver? texasgirl needs to do some research on guns. if it was a semi auto handgun with a hair pin trigger a breeze could have sent the gun off.

[Krunk]

Man... I hope the backpack is ok.

[DAME-O]

This is very very sad. This happens much too often....

[Oscar]

I went to Gradena High. Violence and weapons on campus is realynothing new. I personally saw another student with a 6 shooter and holster. I've seen another student, clearly hihg on something, whip out a big kitchen knife from his backpack wiht a red bandana wrapped around it.

If any of you recall this isn't the first time someones been shot at good 'ol G-High. The yeara before I started school this happenned. My brother was attending at the time.

Half of these kids don't even live in Gardena. most of them are bussed in from Compton, South Central, Watts etc. Most of my friends didn't even live in the same city as me.

The little money Gardena has received hasn't really gone towards the education of the students. We still had math books from 1977, but atleast we got new prison barred windows and high reinforced steel gates...

[Oscar]

It's the biggest campus in LAUSD and ahs like 3,000 students. Imagin the ruckus trying to pass all these kids through a metal detector in the morning. They're already under staffed and underbudgeted.

[Tiger woods cousin]

Gardena is gang infested. Bloods, Crips and Latino gangs dominate the area. A prime drug area becuase of its access to freeways... Located where the 11o & 405 intersect. Gardena is known for lots of gun and drug trafficking. So this is no surprise. Young gang members as young as 12 have weapons in this area and use them to protect their turf where they make money selling drugs.. Many gang members from different gangs go to this school so its no suprise at all that this happened. I will say it seems like gardena is a better place then back in the eighty's... So thats good. :) Hopefully the girl is ok.

[thecanimalsHusband]

The sexist, politically correct LA Times identified the shooter as a "male".