Two students were shot at Taft Union High School in California’s San Joaquin Valley Thursday and another student was taken into custody, according to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.
A 16-year-old student was flown from the school in Taft, California, to a local hospital and is in critical condition, Sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference near the school. The other student refused treatment, fire department spokesman Sean Collins said in a telephone interview.
The shooter “had intended targets,” Youngblood said. “There’s no question about that.”
The suspect, whom authorities didn’t name, fired 2 to 4 rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun, Youngblood said.
The attack occurred as the White House considers stricter gun-control measures following last month’s mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. Vice President Joe Biden is meeting with representatives of the National Rifle Association and other groups to discuss ways to curb access to firearms.
Kern County authorities were notified of gunfire at the high school at 9:01 a.m., Collins said.
Taft, a rural town of about 7,000 people set amid central California’s oil fields, is about 20 miles west of Bakersfield and 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
A gunman killed 20 children and six adults at the Newtown school on Dec. 14, using a semiautomatic rifle.
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