Columbus police have identified the man who fired a gun at a South Side Columbus school Friday morning as a student at the school.

Adan Abdullahi, 18, faces charges of improperly discharging a firearm in a school safety zone, which is a second-degree felony. It's possible more charges could be added, according to officials.

Columbus Scioto 6-12, a school for special-needs and emotionally disturbed students, was evacuated as scores of law-enforcement officers and Fire Division medics responded shortly after 8:30 a.m. Friday to a report of a gunman firing multiple shots in the hallway at the school, at 2951 S. High St. Police on horseback also arrived.

No one was injured.

"One of the staff members did make contact with the armed suspect and was able to talk to that suspect and get him to calm down. Our officers arrived and were able to take him into custody," said Columbus police Chief Kim Jacobs.

Officers had the suspect in custody by 8:58 a.m., according to police spokeswoman Denise Alex-Bouzounis. Police confiscated a gun and were investigating exactly how many shots were fired. Shell casings were found inside the school.

"We couldn't be happier with the outcome of this," she said.

There are no metal detectors and no formal search process of students as they enter the school. Officials said searches of students take place as needed at the staff's discretion. That policy is expected to be reviewed in the wake of this incident.

The school will be closed to students Monday but teachers are to report, said Scott Varner, spokesman for Columbus City Schools. Classes will resume for students on Tuesday.

Abdullahi has a prior assault arrest from February. He had gang material on his personal Facebook page but the incident was not gang-motivated, police said. It's unclear what motivated the shooting.

Two staff members at the school were able to call 911 and relay information to dispatchers as the incident unfolded. One person reported hearing three shots and watched the shooter walk the halls. She said he was talking to himself.

One teacher called from a classroom. After relaying a description of the gunman to a dispatcher, in a hushed voice, he told students, "Hey, hey. You all need to remain calm. We're in lockdown. The best thing we can do is put something in front of the door. But be quiet. Be quiet."

After the school was secured, students were evacuated and guarded by school officials and police in a parking lot across South High Street from the school. About 100 students were temporarily transported to Linmoor Education Center but later returned to Columbus Scioto because many students had left items behind. Another approximately 50 students went to their home schools, Varner said.

Ninth-grade student Ian Addis said he heard what he believed to be a single gunshot while in his classroom Friday morning.

"We all went into a lockdown and we had to just go hide near the lockers," he said.

Before long, he heard police out in the hallway.

"I was scared a little bit," the 15-year-old said.

His mother, Valerie Addis, went to the school as soon as she got word of a shooter. She was stuck behind a police barricade before being told that she could pick up her son at Linmoor Education Center.

“I didn’t panic,” she said. “I prayed and I felt at peace.”

Ian said that he and other students are patted down by a staff member most days in the morning and sometimes students have to take their shoes off. Jacobs said the school has no Columbus police officer there as a resource officer.

His mother said she was concerned with how the school handles the searches.

"I take him back and forth to school and I watch them pat down," Valerie Addis said. "It doesn’t seem the most thorough, but I don’t know."

Still, she said the school has been the best option for her son.

"Ian has been to a lot of schools. For the thing that he deals with, Columbus Scioto, as far as I’m concerned, is the most safe, trusted," Valerie Addis said. "I trust the teachers and the aides with his life. I’m still very confident (in the school)."

The school, where classes begin at 7:15 a.m., is for grades six through 12 and is "designed to meet the needs of emotionally disturbed students," the school's website notes. Its students are referred there and placed in programs "planned around educational as well as behavioral goals."

Records show police have been called to the school a total of 274 times in the past three years. Many of the calls were for disturbances; others were for fights and assaults. In September 2016, there was another report of a person with a gun.

Dispatch reporters Bill Bush, Kimball Perry, Rick Rouan and Jennifer Smola contributed to this story.

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