Shooting reported at Southern Maryland high school

A shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland's St. Mary's County left two students injured and the shooter dead, authorities said.

The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office said the scene is “safe and contained,” after the school was forced into a lockdown.


The shooter, identified as Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, was confronted by a school resource officer stationed at the school and later pronounced dead at an area hospital, St. Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron told reporters.

Cameron said at a press conference in Great Mills that the shooter pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and fired at two students just before the start of classes. He said the shooter may have had a relationship with one of the victims.

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It’s unclear whether the shooter was killed by the officer’s gun or took his own life, Cameron said.

The victims, one male and one female student, were transported to area hospitals. One of the students remained in critical condition as of early Tuesday afternoon, Cameron said.

Other students were bused off campus to a nearby high school to reunite with their families, the school district said in a tweet. Great Mills High School is roughly 70 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.

“This is the beginning of a very long and tragic process,” said St. Mary’s County Public Schools Superintendent District James Scott Smith, also at the press conference. “It looks as though the SRO did exactly what SROs are trained to do, and yet we still have loss of life … we have students and staff impacted.”

Smith said Great Mills High School would remain closed Wednesday.

“It’s tragic. Our hearts are broken,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican.

Hogan told reporters Tuesday afternoon his administration was pushing for legislation at the Maryland statehouse to boost funding for school safety, including for school resource officers. Such officers are sworn members of law enforcement who work in the schools.

We are closely monitoring the situation at Great Mills High School. @MDSP is in touch with local law enforcement and ready to provide support. Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders. — Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) March 20, 2018

“We’re going to try to get something done in Annapolis. To me, it’s outrageous we haven’t taken action on something as important as school safety,” he said.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, who represents the congressional district that includes Great Mills High, said he was “appalled and angered to learn of the shooting.”

“St. Mary’s County is a peaceful, close-knit community, which I am proud to call home, and it is sickening that students were put at risk,” Hoyer said in a statement. “Every student in our country deserves to attend school without fear for his or her safety.”

The incident in Maryland comes four days ahead of a "March For Our Lives" rally scheduled Saturday in Washington that's expected to draw thousands of students, parents and others.

The rally was spurred by the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting in February that left 17 dead.