A 17-year-old male student is in custody and officials are in the process of reuniting students and families, police say.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The 18-year-old male student who was fatally shot outside Bowie High School in Arlington Wednesday has been identified as Etavion Barnes.
A 17-year-old student is in custody, according to police.
Arlington Police Chief Al Jones said officers found Barnes unresponsive on the ground when they arrived to respond to a shots-fired call outside the portable buildings on the Bowie High School campus at about 2:50 p.m.
“The officers immediately began performing life-saving measures on him while we waited for paramedics to arrive,” Jones said. “The young man was transported to the local hospital, and I’m truly heartbroken to say he was pronounced dead from his injuries. Bowie High School was immediately placed on lockdown.”
Jones said officers found the suspect, a 17-year-old male student, not far from the school and he was taken into custody.
“Our hearts are with the entire Bowie High School community tonight, “ said Jones. “We, as a community, cannot tolerate this kind of violence. Not in our neighborhoods and not in our schools. Violence is never the right answer. We will continue to work in lock step with our partners at Arlington ISD to ensure our schools are safe spaces where students can learn.”
Jones said the suspect will be identified later after he’s booked into the Arlington City Jail and following additional investigation.
“We do…believe the suspect and the victim knew each other,” he said.
“We cannot tolerate this kind of violence in our community. We can’t tolerate this violence in our neighborhoods, and we certainly won’t tolerate it in our schools,” Jones said.
Police are in the process of reuniting students with families after the school was on lockdown for three hours Wednesday. The reunification area is set up at 1001 E. Division Street at the Arlington ISD Athletics and Aquatics Center. Police say overflow parking for reunification is available at lot 11 at AT&T Stadium.
“Honestly I’m at a loss for words tonight by this tragedy at Bowie High School this afternoon,” Arlington ISD Superintendent Dr. Matt Smith said. “Schools are supposed to be a place of learning and growth and this afternoon, it was interrupted by senseless violence.”
Smith said classes are canceled for Thursday, April 25.
“When students return to class, they will have the full support of our counseling team for as long as needed,” Smith said.
ATF responded to the scene to help Arlington police with ballistics investigation. Mansfield police also responded to the scene.
A mother of a freshman at the school said she found out about the news via text messages to families and tried to contact her daughter.
“She was scared,” the mother said. “I don’t know if she heard anything…I’m planning on talking to her as soon as they let me have her.”
“I’m so thankful to God that they’re safe, not just my daughter, but all the students,” she added. “Schools are supposed to be sacred ground. We shouldn’t have this kind of stuff going on at the school. They should just be here so they can get their education. So I’m just really glad that she’s safe, and she’s well, and just waiting to get her back.”
One student, just a month away from graduation, said she was hoping this would have never happened to her school.
“But now that it has, it does make me a bit scared to have to come back the next day and know that it happened at a school where I used to feel safe at, but now I really don’t,” she said.
A witness who lives across the street from the school described what she heard to a WFAA crew.
“I kept hearing sirens going back and forth, and then I got a phone call from a parent who said that there was a shooting at the school. So I went out on my patio and stood up and looked over my fence, and I could see the police started to block off the street,” the neighbor said. “I couldn’t tell where the shooting was, but I know that usually at that time, the kids are getting out of the school, and there was no movement. So I knew that something serious had happened.”
She said she didn’t see any kids running out of the school in a hurry.
“I had two kids come over here. They were crying in my yard, so I was consoling them. But I’m really nervous right now. It’s too close to home,” she added.
A state school safety law went into effect last September requiring armed personnel on every campus in Texas. According to Arlington ISD’s website, Bowie High School has one school resource officer.
This bill also compelled school districts to create active shooter plans, health training for certain school faculty and put restrictions on those who carry a gun in school.
Despite instituting these new school safety requirements, Texas lawmakers allocated only $10 per student for security measures—a 28-cent increase over 2022. Lawmakers also set aside $15,000 in grants to provide each campus, but that’s just a fraction of an armed guard’s salary.
Less than two weeks ago, there was a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southeast Dallas. One student was injured in that shooting and a 17-year-old suspect, also a student at that school, was arrested.
This shooting comes less than three years after another high school shooting in Arlington at Mansfield ISD’s Timberview High School, less than four miles down the road from Bowie High School. Four people were injured in a shooting that happened after a fight in October 2021.
This is a developing story. WFAA will update this story as additional information becomes available.
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