2 Are Shot at Virginia High School; Youth Is Arrested

A 14-year-old student opened fire with a pistol in the hallway of a high school Monday as students took final exams, wounding a basketball coach and a volunteer aide, police said.

The injuries were not life-threatening, doctors said. Several students were in the hallway at the time of the shooting, and investigators believe one of them, not the coach or the aide, was the intended target, police said.

The student was arrested and will be charged as an adult with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of using a firearm in a felony. Police refused to identify him.

Monday’s violence at Armstrong High School follows recent fatal school shootings in West Paducah, Ky.; Pearl, Miss.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Springfield, Ore.

The boy was held in the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center pending a detention hearing today.

The shooting followed an argument earlier in the day between two groups of juveniles but was not gang-related, said Deputy Police Chief Theresa Gooch. Witnesses said nine or 10 shots were fired.

The weapon was a .32-caliber Llama semiautomatic handgun, police said.

Ron Brown, a police officer assigned to the school, heard shots and alerted the police station. He then chased the suspect and arrested him three blocks away.

A second teen was held for questioning.

Gregory Carter, 45, a basketball coach and history teacher at the school for 20 years, underwent a 40-minute operation to remove a bullet from his abdomen. He was in stable condition and was expected to recover fully.

Volunteer Eloise Wilson, 74, suffered a flesh wound when a bullet grazed her right arm. She was treated and released.

Students were in classrooms taking exams on the next-to-last day of school when the shooting occurred about 10 a.m.

Ninth-grader Floyd Peace said he was taking an exam in a classroom on the second floor when he “heard shooting and screaming” outside the main school office on the first floor.

“I’m stunned, shocked. I’ve heard it happened other places, but I never thought something like this would happen in Virginia,” the 15-year-old Peace said.

School was dismissed for the day.