GLENDALE, Ariz. (CBS) —Two teen girls were shot dead at a high school in Glendale, Ariz. Friday morning, police said. Police said the danger at the suburban Phoenix campus was over as hundreds of worried parents crowded outside nearby stores to await word on their children.
Police responded to the call of a shooting at Independence High School just before 8 a.m. Officers found the two victims, both 15-year-old students, dead of single gunshot wounds on an outdoor portion of the campus under a covered patio near the school’s cafeteria, said Glendale police officer Tracey Breeden.
The girls were found lying next to each other with a weapon nearby, Breeden said. She couldn’t say whether police suspect it was a murder-suicide or double-suicide, but she said police aren’t searching for any suspects. Breeden told parents awaiting word on their kids that “your children are safe.”
Police arrived within two minutes of being called, and the school of more than 2,000 students went on lockdown, Breeden said.
The shooting apparently happened in an area without other students nearby, Breeden said. She said no witnesses had yet come forward. There were no threats made to the school or any students or staff there, she said.
Breeden said she didn’t know what led up to the shooting or whether the girls knew each other. She called it a “tragic situation.”
One student told CBS affiliate KPHO during a phone call that students were heading to class at the time of the gunfire.
“Me and my friend were in front of the school and we heard like, two loud shots, and we thought it was just someone popping a bag or something,” the student said. “We didn’t know what it was, and then the bell rang and we went to class.”
Cheryl Rice said she went to a store after a friend called about the shooting and asked after Rice’s 15-year-old daughter. But the girl called as Rice arrived at the store.
“She said, ‘I’m OK,’ so I of course started crying,” Rice said.
She said it was horrible waiting for word about her child.
“You don’t know if it’s your daughter or not. You don’t know who’s being bullied. You don’t know who is being picked on. You don’t know anything. It could be anybody,” Rice said.
School district officials said parents will be bused to the school to be reunited with their children. Other students who got permission from their parents left campus on their own.
Glendale Union High School District alerted parents to the shooting through emails and automatic phone calls and released information on social media, Superintendent Brian Capistran said.
Students typically are not allowed to use their cellphones during lockdowns, but as calls from parents flooded the district, officials asked teachers to have students call family, Capistran said.
Social workers and counselors will be available to students and staff when school resumes Tuesday, the superintendent said.
