A hall monitor at a Baltimore high school was wounded by gunfire Friday after confronting an armed intruder trying to enter the sprawling building, according to authorities. Officials sprang into lockdown mode as the sound of gunshots reverberated through the building packed with students.

A 25-year-old man entered the Frederick Douglass High School lobby about noon and got into some kind of argument with a monitor, according to city police. His name was not released.

The 56-year-old school employee was shot in the lower torso.

Authorities credited the quick action of school police, who swiftly apprehended and disarmed the shooter. All students and other staffers were safe, but the experience with gun violence in their school lobby was traumatic, some said.


“I’m not going to lie: I was scared at first. All I heard was there was fighting and gunshots at the doors, and then we went on lockdown,” said Kairon Slay, a 14-year-old ninth-grader, as he gathered with several classmates at a shopping mall across the street from his high school, now cordoned off with yellow police tape.

Students said they were on lockdown for roughly an hour before being escorted out.

There was a meeting at the high school when the intruder walked in, and it’s thought the man wanted to confront someone inside, Baltimore Police Col. Byron Conaway told reporters at a news conference.

The wounded hall monitor, who students said was also an athletics coach, was in serious but stable condition. Authorities did not release his name.


G’Mar Matthews, an 18-year-old senior, said metal detectors at the school’s main entrance were generally deactivated after classes began for the day. “They don’t keep those things on all day,” he said.

A number of parents said they were exasperated that administrators did not notify them about the shooting incident even well after their children were escorted out of the building.

“We didn’t hear a thing from the school. We only learned about the shooting from a cousin who works for the school system. A message would have been nice,” said Keith Young, a claims adjuster who rushed through traffic to pick up his stepson, a 10th-grader named Terrence.

Sgt. Clyde Boatwright, president of Baltimore’s school police union, said there was no telling what the gunman might have done if one unarmed law enforcer and two unarmed officers were not in the vicinity when the violence erupted. He criticized a recent unanimous vote by Baltimore’s school board rejecting firearms for school resource officers posted to city schools.