iStock/Thinkstock(LEXINGTON PARK, Md.) — A teen who survived a shooting at his Maryland high school called 911 himself, saying, “I was just shot in my school.”
“I’m sorry?” the dispatcher replied.
“I was just shot at my school,” 14-year-old Desmond Barnes repeated.
A Great Mills High School teacher then took the phone and continued the conversation with the dispatcher.
Just before 8 a.m. on March 20, the suspected shooter, 17-year-old Austin Rollins, approached 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey in a hallway and shot her once in the head, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said.
The single discharged round struck Desmond in the leg. Desmond went to a classroom for shelter and was later found by responding officers, the sheriff’s office said.
Another 911 caller told a dispatcher, “There’s a girl outside my door bleeding on the ground.”
The caller said one shot was fired — apparently to the girl’s head — and there was a pool of blood surrounding her.
After Rollins allegedly shot the two teenagers, he continued walking and was confronted by school resource officer deputy Blaine Gaskill.
Rollins fired one fatal shot to his own head and, at the same time, Gaskill fired one non-fatal shot, hitting the gun in Rollins’ hand, the sheriff’s office said.
Two days after the shooting, Willey’s mother announced her daughter would be taken off life support. The teen died that night.
Willey and Rollins “had a prior relationship, which recently ended,” the sheriff’s office said. “All indications suggest the shooting was not a random act of violence.”
Desmond was hospitalized and then released on March 21.
St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron called the shooting “our worst nightmare.”
“This is what we prepare for,” he said. “And this is what we pray we never have to do.”
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