(PatriotWise.com) — Police in Wisconsin averted what may have been a school shooting on Wednesday after they shot and killed an armed juvenile outside of Mount Horeb Middle School.
In a press conference Wednesday evening, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said Mount Horeb police fatally shot the student after responding to a report about someone outside of the middle school armed with a gun.
Kaul told reporters that the suspect “never gained entry” into the school and nobody else was harmed in the incident.
The suspect was only identified as a juvenile male. Authorities did not say if he was a student at the middle school or if he attended another school within the district. The attorney general also refused to say if the student had fired his weapon or what kind of weapon he had.
Kaul said the responding officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting and some had been placed on leave pending an investigation.
The school district began posting community alerts about the incident on the district’s Facebook page starting at around 11:16 a.m. on Wednesday when it reported that the middle school was on lockdown. The district later confirmed that there had been an “active shooter” near the middle school who did not “breach” the building.
The district implemented its lockdown procedures and didn’t begin reuniting student with their parents until Wednesday evening.
According to the attorney general, the reunification process took longer than expected because police feared that there might be an additional threat after the suspect was killed. However, after investigators determined that there was no additional threat, the reunification process proceeded.
Mount Horeb Superintendent Steve Salerno lauded the school’s security measures that require visitors to “ring through a doorbell and state the nature of their business” before being allowed entry. He said the school’s security likely prevented an even worse tragedy from happening.
Salerno also praised the students who quickly reported seeing the armed suspect approaching the middle school, saying their quick thinking enabled staff to swiftly take “decisive action.”
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