Student shoots schoolmate at South Carolina middle school

GREENVILLE, S.C. >> A student was shot and taken to the hospital today at a South Carolina middle school after being shot by another student, authorities said.

The teenage shooter was taken into custody near Tanglewood Middle School not long after the shooting that happened in the front part of the school, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said.

“He was hiding. He’s a young man, probably didn’t understand the consequences of what had just happened,” the sheriff said at a news conference. “I don’t think he knew what to do honestly, except for to leave the school.”

A police officer at the school called in the shooting and requested emergency backup around 12:30 p.m. and more than 200 deputies and other law enforcement officers rushed to the school, Lewis said.

The condition of the student who was shot is not known, Greenville County Schools spokesman Tim Waller said in a statement.

Students at the school were being taken to nearby Brookwood Church where parents can pick them up, Waller said.

Helicopter footage from WYFF-TV showed dozens of officers walking around outside the school with more than two dozen buses lined up. Some students were slowly boarding the buses.

Deputies are still investigating the shooting and don’t know why it happened, Greenville County Schools Superintendent Burke Royster said.

“I’m not sure after a full and thorough law enforcement investigation anyone will really know what was going through the mind of that young person who took this rash act,” Royster said.