Four students shot in San Francisco high school parking lot

Chaos erupted at a small San Francisco high school Tuesday when gunfire broke out just as school was letting out, leaving four students wounded - one seriously - and police searching for at least one shooter.

As the sound of gunfire echoed through the hallways of the June Jordan School for Equity campus in the Excelsior District about 3:20 p.m., teachers corralled scrambling students and shoved them into classrooms, bolting doors and hoping this would not be the latest mass school shooting.

According to police, several shots were fired into a group of students gathered in the parking lot of the campus, which the school shares with the City Arts and Technology High School.

San Francisco police blocked off streets in the city’s Excelsior District on Tuesday afternoon after several people were shot outside a high school campus. San Francisco police blocked off streets in the city’s Excelsior District on Tuesday afternoon after several people were shot outside a high school campus. Photo: Michael Bodley Photo: Michael Bodley Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Four students shot in San Francisco high school parking lot 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

When police arrived, they were unsure whether the shots came from inside the school and whether the shooter was still inside. They placed the school under “lock-out,” meaning nobody was allowed to enter or leave the school, and went classroom to classroom before determining the shooter, or shooters, had fled.

San Francisco police continued to search Tuesday night for suspects and at least one gunman.

Four students were injured in the shooting, said Officer Carlos Manfredi, a department spokesman. Three of them ran inside the school before paramedics arrived and took them to a nearby trauma hospital.

Brent Andrew, a spokesman for San Francisco General Hospital, said that because the victims were minors, he could not provide any information on how many were being treated or on the nature of their injuries or their conditions.

According to Manfredi, one victim, a girl, was shot in the upper extremities and suffered life-threatening injuries. Two male victims were shot in the lower extremities and suffered non-critical wounds. A fourth victim walked into San Francisco General Hospital, saying he was injured in the gunfire. The nature of his injuries was not specified.

Four male suspects were seen running west on Brazil Avenue away from the school, Manfredi said.

Police believe that at least one of the victims was the intended target of the shooting. The school district tweeted that a student had been targeted by “outsiders.” A female Jordan employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on behalf of the school said educators believe there were “building tensions outside the classroom” that boiled over, resulting in the shooting.

Fernando Rodriguez, 16, a junior at June Jordan, described the confusion, chaos and fear inside the school. He said he was walking down a hallway when he heard at least six “pops.” As students ran in all directions, teachers gathered them and pushed them into classrooms, he said.

“It was terrifying,” he said. “We walk into this school every day, every morning, and to hear gunshots like that — just scary.”

Inside a classroom, with the door bolted shut, Rodriguez, dozens of other students and a teacher, waited nervously. They were unsure whether a gunman was still on the loose. Many of the students, he said, feared a mass shooting was happening at the school.

About a half-hour later, word came that the shots had been fired outside the school, he said.

Police issued a shelter-in-place order for the surrounding area as officers searched for the four suspects.

The high school remained open Wednesday and school officials provided students with grief counselors.

Staff writers Michael Cabanatuan and Jenna Lyons contributed to this report.

Michael Bodley and Kimberly Veklerov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michael_bodley @kveklerov