10th-grader shot in alley while walking home from school in West L.A.
A 10th-grade student was shot Tuesday while walking home from a West Los Angeles school, police said, the latest in a series of violent attacks against students across the city.
The Hamilton High School student, who was not identified, was passing through an alley near Reynier Park around 3:40 p.m. when someone in a car drove up to him and drew a handgun, Los Angeles police said.
The shooter fired and struck the student, who was taken to a hospital and was said to be stable, said Officer Lizeth Lomeli, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Officials with the Los Angeles School Police Department are working alongside LAPD to investigate the shooting, said Sgt. Rudy Perez, a spokesperson for LASPD. What led to the violence was not immediately clear, he said.
No suspect has been identified, and it was not known whether the shooter was a juvenile or an adult, authorities said.
Teachers and administrators are seeing an increase in aggressive and sometimes violent behavior among students.
Perez said there has been an increase in violence across the Los Angeles Unified School District, with many incidents occurring when students are arriving to or leaving campus.
A female student at Hamilton High was allegedly sexually assaulted in a restroom in October by at least one male student — a reported attack partially captured on video and circulated to others, law enforcement officials and school district sources said.
“Is there an epidemic of high violence now affecting our students? Yes,” Perez said. “But we’re doing our very best to address these issues, especially trying to cultivate a culture of safety.”
Late last month, a 17-year-old was stabbed in the thigh and shoulder by a fellow high-schooler at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in the Westlake area.
Less than a week ago, cellphone video captured a brutal attack on a student in South Los Angeles by two unknown individuals. The video shows two attackers punching and kicking a student before taking off with the victim’s phone and money.
The robbery is similar to an attack on teenage sisters who were walking to school last week in Central Los Angeles. The two girls were heading to Fairfax High School when they were approached from behind by two women who struck them and pulled them to the ground by their hair, according to police.
A juvenile was arrested Tuesday in connection with that assault, LAPD officials said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
