Posted on: Thursday, March 22, 2001

California high school shooting erupts

Associated Press

EL CAJON, Calif. ­ Gunfire erupted at a high school today and at least one person was injured.

Television news reports said as many as three people were shot and one person was in custody.

The shooting occurred at midday at Granite Hills High School, less than three weeks after a shooting at Santana High School in nearby Santee killed two students and injured 13 other people.

The shooting at Granite Hills was reported at 12:54 p.m. and firefighters took one victim to a hospital, said a Fire Department spokesman.

Other ambulances were dispatched along with a helicopter ambulance, but the spokesman did not know the total number of victims.

Students were evacuated from the school east of San Diego and taken to a nearby middle school.

The El Cajon Police Department and San Diego County Sheriff's Department confirmed that several shots had been fired. They had no information on the seriousness of any wounds.

Ryan Carrillo, a sophomore at the school, told KGTV-San Diego that he heard gunshots as he walked to a bathroom near the office.

"It sounded like an explosion, like in a chemistry class or something," he said of the first two shots he heard. After hearing five more shots, he ran out of the school and into a nearby park.

Witnesses told KFMB-TV that a suspect, armed with a rifle and handgun, was wrestled to the ground by police.

Officers also were searching for possibly a second suspect, the station reported.

Some 2,900 students attend the school 17 miles east of San Diego and just south of Santee, site of the March 5 shooting at Santana High School.

Students hugged and cried as they gathered in a park near the Granite Hills campus. Many parents ran about searching for their children.