Three students were wounded in a shooting on Tuesday at a Dallas high school where, almost exactly a year ago, a student was shot in the leg by a classmate, the authorities said.
A fourth student suffered a “musculoskeletal injury” to his lower body during the shooting on Tuesday, said Jason Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue, who said that all four victims were male. Three of the victims were between the ages of 15 and 18, while the fourth student’s age was not immediately known.
The authorities said that they were searching for a suspect, whose identity was known to investigators.
The injuries ranged in severity, some of them serious, according to emergency medical workers, who responded around 1:10 p.m. local time to Wilmer-Hutchins High School, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Dallas.
The gunfire erupted inside the school, which is part of the Dallas Independent School District, sending it into a lockdown and drawing a large number of officers from several law enforcement agencies to the campus.
“Today, as we all know, the unthinkable has happened,” Stephanie S. Elizalde, the school district’s superintendent, said during a news conference. “And quite frankly, this is just becoming way too familiar, and it should not be familiar.”
A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. It was the second episode of gun violence in just over a year at the school, which has about 900 students.
A nearby elementary school, which has the same name as the high school, was also placed on lockdown during the episode, the authorities said.
On April 12, 2024, a 17-year-old student fired a .38-caliber revolver at a classmate in a classroom at the school, wounding him in the leg in what the authorities said at the time was a targeted shooting. A teacher was credited with getting the student who fired the weapon to leave the school building before he was taken into custody near the school’s stadium. The victim’s injuries were not life-threatening.
That episode prompted a walkout — a year to the day before the shooting on Tuesday — by students in protest of what they said were lax security measures at the school, which has metal detectors.
Asked on Tuesday how someone had been able to bring a gun into the school and get it past the metal detectors, the school district’s assistant police chief, Christina Smith, said, “We do know that the gun did not come through during regular intake time.”
“So it was not a failure of our staff, of our protocols of the machinery that we have,” she said. Chief Smith declined to elaborate.
Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, who represents the area of Dallas where the school is located, said on social media on Tuesday that she was heartbroken to learn of another shooting there.
“No child should fear for their life at school,” Ms. Crockett wrote on X. “No teacher should have to barricade a classroom door. Let me be clear: this is not normal. This is not acceptable. Guns do not belong in our schools.”
Footage from a local news helicopter showed students streaming out of the school on Tuesday and into campus parking lots. The Dallas Independent School District used the school’s football stadium as a reunification area and told parents to bring photo IDs with them when meeting their children. It said that it was making counselors available and canceling classes at the high school for the rest of the week.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said in a statement on social media on Tuesday that he had spoken with the school district’s superintendent and police chief to offer support.
“Our hearts go out to the victims of the senseless act of violence at Wilmer-Hutchins High School,” Mr. Abbott said, adding, “We’ll provide law enforcement the tools needed to arrest & bring the criminals to justice.”
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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