MIAMI, April 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Ten elementary school children in the
southern US state of Georgia were hit by what appeared to be a pellet or BB
gun when someone in a wooded area started shooting at their playground, an
official said Thursday.
The incident sparked panic at the Wynbrooke Elementary School in DeKalb
County as police descended on the scene of what initially appeared to be yet
another mass shooting.
Caleb Edmonson, an 11-year-old student, told local news WSB-TV 2:
“Everybody started to get a little bit panicked, but people started thinking
it was a drill, but then a couple of minutes later we saw ambulances, police
officers coming in, running down our hallways.”
The students were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for non life-
threatening injuries or picked up their parents, Portia Kirkland, a
spokeswoman for DeKalb County School District told AFP, adding a police
investigation was underway.
The incident came days after the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shooting
when two armed teens killed 12 students at their Colorado high school.
Since then, an estimated 226,000 children in 233 schools have been exposed
to the sight or sound of gunfire, according to a Washington Post
investigation.
The worst shootings to date were those at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newton, Connecticut in 2012 (20 young children and six adults were killed)
and at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last year
(17 dead).