Boy, 10, Shot on Compton School Bus

A 9-year-old special education student allegedly pulled a handgun from his backpack and shot and wounded a 10-year-old classmate on a school bus in Compton on Friday morning -- an incident that shook a city already reeling from a year of violence.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said the shooting appeared to be accidental.

The two boys were en route to a county-run special-needs program at Longfellow Elementary School when the shooting took place about 8:20 a.m., law enforcement officials said.

Five other students were on the bus at the time of the shooting. The program they are enrolled in serves students with mental, physical and emotional disabilities, according to county education officials. The names of the boys were not released, nor was information about their specific disabilities.

Deputies were still trying to determine how the boy who allegedly fired the gun got the weapon.

He was taken into custody at the scene and later released to his grandparents by Department of Children and Family Services officials, said Lt. Seiko Tokuda.

The victim -- who was struck superficially in the left elbow -- was taken to a hospital in good condition, fire officials said. His injury was not life-threatening, but he remained hospitalized late Friday afternoon.

The incident began on the bus only minutes before it was due to arrive at school.

When the younger boy first took the weapon from his backpack, the victim told him to put it away, according a source at Compton City Hall. He did, only to pull it back out moments later and fire.

Deputies said the two boys went directly to the bus driver to report what had happened.

At least some Compton Unified elementary schools were placed on “code yellow” following the shooting, with students kept in their classrooms until officials determined there was no danger.

At Longfellow Elementary, where the boys attended class, a note was sent home to parents that read in part: “This incident did not occur on our campus and did not present a threat to students on our campus.”

The shooting took place about a mile away, near another school, Robert F. Kennedy Elementary. The bus driver pulled over there to call for help after the shot was fired.

Elina Lee, 35, said the sound of helicopters and sirens drew her out of her home. Her daughter and niece attend Kennedy, and she lives close enough to the school to hear the bells ring between the periods.

What she saw panicked her.

“It looked like they were preparing for a bomb threat. There were police cars everywhere. The street was blocked off,” Lee said.

“We take it for granted that at this age, we don’t have to worry about guns -- we know at the middle school or high school these things happen. Are we going to have to start searching backpacks of grade school kids?” she said. “This child was able to get a hold of a loaded gun. It could have gone fatally wrong.”

Friday’s shooting came a week after an 8-year-old Maryland boy shot and wounded a 7-year-old girl at a day-care center in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

In that case the boy’s father, a felon who was not allowed to possess a gun, was arrested and charged with allowing a minor access to a weapon.

In Compton, deputies said they were still determining what charges might be filed.

“Generally, if it’s an adult, this would be assault with a deadly weapon,” Tokuda said. “We need to find out what the suspect’s story or explanation is on how he got the gun. If he got it from a family member, we will investigate that as well.”

The bus shooting came a week after two Los Angeles gang members allegedly fired at sheriff’s deputies in Compton with an AK-47 and a handgun and then took a family of four hostage in a neighborhood near the site of Friday’s incident.

On Thursday, the city had its first homicide of the year when a 44-year-old man was shot and killed shortly after 10 a.m.

Still, Compton has experienced a downturn in violence in recent weeks, with gang-related shootings about half of what they were for the same period last year.

Sheriff Lee Baca increased gang enforcement in the city early this year and moved a homicide detective unit to Compton to try to crack down on gang violence.

For some longtime residents, the fact that a 9-year-old apparently had access to a loaded gun underscored the city’s problems with gun violence -- a problem they noted extends far beyond the city’s boundaries.

Compton City Manager Barbara Kilroy -- whose city saw homicides soar last year to the worst level in a decade -- said residents and officials there are “very grateful no one was seriously injured.”

“It’s the sort of thing that happens all over as a country,” Kilroy said. “As far as I’m concerned -- and the NRA can come after me -- the U.S. does not have responsible gun legislation. We’re all very lucky there aren’t more of these cases.”

At Longfellow Elementary -- where a mural depicting Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore covers an outside wall -- psychologists were dispatched as part of a crisis management team to help students and teachers cope with the incident.

Margo Minecki, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said her agency is reviewing the incident to determine how to handle the suspected shooter.

“We need to assess whether his action was due to his disability,” she said. “If so, then we design appropriate intervention so that he may return to that class. If we determinate that the reason for his action was not the disability, another education program will need to be found so that he cannot return to that class.”

Parents picking up their children Friday called the incident very upsetting. Several said they believed the shooter’s parents or guardians should be held accountable.

Vicky Rizas, 36, was at the school Friday morning when officials announced they were going to close the school and lock down the classes.

“I was scared,” Rizas said. “Things like this can happen anywhere, but I’m concerned about safety in the school.”

Amos Lawson Jr. , 32, said the shooting was a reminder that times have changed. Parents, he said, have to take more responsibility.

“They need to check the backpacks before their kids go to school in the morning,” he said. “And again when they come home. They don’t know what they may have in them.”