A Fistfight Between Two High School Students Ends With Fatal Shooting

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High School Fight Ends With One Student Shooting Another In Hallway

One fistfight between two North Carolina high school students took a terrible turn on Monday after one of them pulled out a handgun and fired at his classmate in a crowded hallway before the start of classes, according to authorities.

The alleged shooter was identified as a male student at David W. Butler High School in Matthews–a suburb southeast of Charlotte–and was quickly taken into custody, police said.

“There are no other threats or dangers to any of the students or staff, or anyone in the area of the school,” Captain Stason Tyrrell of the Matthews Police Department told reporters near the school. “I can just tell you that the shooter was taken into custody by Matthews Police Department, and his family is aware as well,” he assured students and the community.

Following the horrific incident, the school briefly went into a lockdown as the wounded student (who was also not identified by police) was rushed to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. The student died there a few hours later.

Surveillance video shows the two students getting into a fight before the shooting happened, according to Tyrrell. “From what I’ve seen and the information I’ve received, our school resource officer was very nearby when it took place, and the situation became under control very quickly,” he added.

Clayton Wilcox, Charlotte Mecklenburg School Superintendent, said that the school did not have a policy of searching every bag that enters the school prior to this incident, but added that all security procedures would be reviewed following the shooting.

“I don’t know how a young person gets a handgun in the state of North Carolina,” Wilcox said to reporters. “But we are going to look into all those things, and we will do our best to make sure that this never happens again.”