Police Shoot Gun-Toting Student

Police shot and seriously wounded a despondent 19-year-old alternative school student armed with a shotgun Wednesday after a vice principal waged a wrestling match for the weapon.

Mario Rodriguez remained in critical but stable condition after three officers shot him when the high school senior leveled a 12-gauge shotgun at them as if ready to shoot, police said.

L.C. Brown, a vice principal and teacher at Rio Cazadero High, was treated for a leg wound described as not life-threatening. Authorities credited the administrator, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer, with helping avert what could have become a far more deadly incident. Sacramento Police Chief Albert Najera said Brown acted heroically.

Friends of Rodriguez said he was upset because his girlfriend had broken up with him after he presented her with a ring. “I don’t think he was out to shoot anyone except maybe himself,” said Jenna Moore, an 18-year-old senior at the continuation school. “He was hurt, and he was crying out for attention.”

She and other friends described Rodriguez as a class clown who sometimes tried too hard to fit in -- and ended up earning taunts from classmates who didn’t warm to him. They said he came to school Tuesday suddenly acting downcast because of the breakup with his girlfriend, who doesn’t attend the same school.

On Wednesday morning, Rodriguez arrived carrying a duffel bag used to tote softball bats, friends said. Shortly after entering his classroom at the edge of campus, Rodriguez pulled out the pump-action shotgun and told the class to leave the room, students said.

Panicked students fled. Some jumped fences to get off campus. Others huddled in nearby rooms.

The vice principal, meanwhile, ran to the classroom and tried to talk to the senior. Police said the details of their encounter remain unclear, but at some point Brown began grappling with Rodriguez for the gun.

Alerted by frantic 911 calls from the school staff, two Sacramento police officers arrived about the same time as a sheriff’s deputy who serves as a school resource officer for several area campuses. During the struggle between Rodriguez and the school administrator, the shotgun discharged. Police said it is unclear if Brown was hit by that shot, wounded by police or injured his leg while wrestling with Rodriguez.

When the three officers approached, they screamed at Rodriguez at least three times to put down the shotgun, according to police and witnesses. When he appeared to aim the gun at officers, they opened fire. He suffered at least two wounds in the upper body and one in the leg. “They fired, fearing for their lives,” said Sacramento Police Capt. Sam Somers.

Rodriguez’s pump-action shotgun was loaded with several shells, Somers said. Though similar guns can be loaded with up to half a dozen shells, Somers said it was unclear how many Rodriguez had loaded. Rodriquez also had a realistic-looking, nickel-plated replica handgun, police said.

Sgt. Lou Fatur, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said the school deputy and Sacramento officers “absolutely prevented what could have been just mayhem. A kid with two guns was obviously here to do some major damage.”

Some pellets were embedded in the walls of the school building while others penetrated through to the classroom, which already had been emptied by the time the officers opened fire, Fatur said.

The quick response from officers, who arrived within a few minutes of the first calls, came in part because extra patrols had been added a day earlier. On Tuesday, a 15-year-old student at another area high school was fatally shot during an argument a block off campus. Police initially suspected Rodriguez might have been part of some retaliation attempt, but concluded after talking with witnesses that there seemed to be no connection between the two incidents.

Michael Baca, who graduated last year and described himself as a good friend of Rodriguez, said the heavy-set youth wasn’t particularly popular and would try to do anything to fit in. He earned A’s and Bs, played baseball and softball, and wasn’t a troublemaker, Baca said. Rodriguez lived a few blocks from school, and there were no major troubles at home, Baca said, adding that he had never before seen his friend with a gun. “I just can’t believe this happened,” Baca said. “This was all about attention.”

Moore, the high school senior and friend, described Rodriguez as sensitive. “This just doesn’t seem like him,” she said. “I just think he got his feelings hurt real bad.”

The district attorney and homicide detectives from the Sheriff’s Department and Police Department will investigate the shooting.

Rio Cazadero is an alternative high school for 280 students who have fallen behind in classes, said Samantha Bauer, a spokeswoman for the Elk Grove Unified School District.