MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — Dustin Tatum was leaving his middle school cafeteria Friday when he heard a loud bang. Chaos ensued as a teacher rushed him and fellow students into a classroom, locked the door, turned off the lights and ordered everyone to hit the floor.
Only later did Dustin learn that his close friend, a 15-year-old classmate, was shot in the stomach and that police were identifying the shooting suspect as a former student expelled from the central Indiana school just days earlier.
“It was a nightmare hearing my friend just got shot and he’s being lifelined to the hospital,” said Dustin, 14.
The lone victim, Chance Jackson, was listed in critical but stable condition Friday at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where he was taken by helicopter.
The former student, 15, suspected in the attack was arrested miles away on the south side of Martinsville about an hour after the shooting, which unfolded before 7 a.m. Friday, just as classes were about to begin, said State Police Sgt. Curt Durnil.
The teen was being questioned at the county jail as Morgan County prosecutors reviewed possible charges.
“We have no motive at all at this point,” Durnil said. “We’re talking to witnesses and schools officials to get to the bottom of it.”
Officers found a handgun thought used in the shooting in a field near the school, about 30 miles south of Indianapolis.
The shooting on the last day of classes before the start of spring break sparked an hours-long lockdown at Martinsville West Middle School, as hundreds of panicked parents awaited word on their children. The school, with about 600 students and 39 teachers, is one of two middle schools in the city.
Durnil said the teen in custody had been suspended, then expelled, from the school this week and was not supposed to be on campus. He said he did not know why the student was expelled, and school officials would not comment.
Dustin and other classmates told The Associated Press that Chance and the shooting suspect had a volatile relationship and had argued.
