Developing - Fla. High School Shooting: One Student Dead , One Student In Custody
(FOX)
Girl Found Unconscious at Florida High School Dies in Possible Shooting, Another Girl in Custody
A girl found unconscious by a snack machine at a Florida high school died Wednesday after a possible shooting in what police are classifying as an “isolated” incident between her and another female student.
The 15-year-old Dillard High School sophomore was taken to a Ft. Lauderdale hospital after the apparent altercation with another girl. She was initially listed in critical condition, but died later Wednesday afternoon, Fort Lauderdale city spokesman Ted Lawson confirmed.
The other girl was arrested and remains in police custody, Ft. Lauderdale Sgt. Frank Sousa told reporters.
An initial examination found no evidence of a major wound. Reports of a school shooting were still unconfirmed.
Sousa said police don’t believe shots were heard, but they’re still investigating whether any shells were found at the scene. He said investigators do have a gun in their possession.
He said the school was locked down “for a brief moment” during the unspecified incident, but classes have since resumed.
Aerial video footage showed students streaming out of the school and milling around before being sent back inside a few minutes later. Another tape showed police escorting the apparent suspect away in a patrol car.
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FORT LAUDERDALE - A Dillard High School junior has died after a possible shooting on campus this morning, Superintendent James Notter said.
Notter confirmed the 15-year-old girl’s death. She was identified as Amanda Colette.
Notter said he believed the shooting occurred in a school hallway after some sort of dispute with another 15-year-old female student around 11 a.m., but police still aren’t sure exactly what.
Colette was found unresponsive in the hallway, but an initial examination found no evidence of a major wound, police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa said.
As police arrived, dispatchers got a call from Captain Crab’s, a nearby restaurant, reporting that another girl may have been involved in a shooting, Sousa said.
That girl is in custody and a firearm was recovered, he said. Her name has not been released.
“This does appear to be an incident connected to a dispute between both of them,” Sousa said. “This is an isolated incident.”
Colette was taken to Broward General Medical Center, where she died.
A lockdown of the school was lifted this afternoon, but it has been put back into effect.
Dillard students do not normally have to pass through metal detectors.
School resource officers have metal-detecting wand devices that are used when there is a threat, but no such condition existed this morning, Notter said.
Notter said grief counselors will be on hand tomorrow to coach students “over what none of us would want to go through in life.”
“We are devastated, devastated over what happened today,” Notter said.
Parents rushing to the scene expressed frustration that so little information was coming from the school system.
Joe Melita, executive director of the school district’s special investigative unit, said police are looking into a possible shooting on campus involving two female students.
But Louise Matthis, 37, of Lauderhill, said she called the school and they told her it was just a child who was ill.
“If it’s only an ill child, why are there so many cops out here?” said Matthis, whose 18-year-old daughter is a Dillard student. “They’re not telling us anything.”
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