Wisconsin police kill student who came to middle school with a gun

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Wisconsin police shot and killed a student who officials say came to a local middle school with a gun. The student never got into the school, but as a precaution the entire district was put on a lockdown on late Wednesday morning.

Students have since been reunited with their parents, some of whom waited up to five hours for their children to be dropped off at a bus storage center in Mount Horeb, a village about 20 miles (32km) south-west of Madison, the state capital, according to WMTV 15 news.

No other students or staff were injured in the shooting, Josh Kaul, Wisconsin's attorney general, said during a Wednesday news conference.

Authorities at the briefing described the student as a juvenile male but did not provide further identification or specifics on the type of firearm he had and whether any shots had been fired at police, pending an investigation by local, state and federal enforcement.

"This type of incident is any parent's nightmare," Kaul said. "There was a report about someone with a weapon at school, and law enforcement responded. That's an inherently dangerous situation."

Parents at the Mt Horeb School District Bus Garage awaiting reunification with students. We are told students from the high school, middle school and intermediate center will be bused here but we don't know when. pic.twitter.com/ywm2W9bfKu

— Madison365 (@madison_365) May 1, 2024

The middle school where the police shooting occurred will be open on Thursday and serve as a hub for staff and students to get resources and support. Instruction is expected to resume on Friday, according to the superintendent, Steve Salerno.

"We are ready to roll up our sleeves and work shoulder to shoulder with our amazing law enforcement and first responders," Salerno said at the news conference. "This could have been a far worse tragedy."

Incidents of shootings and guns being pulled out on K-12 campuses in US schools have grown in frequency in recent years, according to data from the K-12 School Shooting Database, a non-profit that tracks incidents. According to the group, there have been at least 115 such incidents this year, and in 82 of those cases someone was injured or killed.

Incidents include a fatal 24 April shooting at a high school in Arlington, Texas, that left an 18-year-old dead. A 17-year-old has been arrested on a warrant for murder in the case, the Associated Press reported. In March, a high school student and adult were shot outside North Kansas City high school in Missouri following a basketball game. And on 4 January, 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff was shot and killed after a 17-year-old opened fire outside a high school in Perry, Iowa, also killing the school's principal and injuring six others.

• This article was amended on 2 May 2024 to clarify that the principal of a high school in Perry, Iowa, was killed, not injured, during a shooting on 4 January.