Three Teens Arrested in School Shooting

Gardena - Police say two more teenagers have been arrested in connection with an accidental shooting that wounded two students at a South Los Angeles high school.

Detective A. Batris says a boy and a girl were arrested on Tuesday for investigation of helping conceal evidence after a 17-year-old boy allegedly smuggled a gun into class at Gardena High School in a backpack and it went off.

Batris says after the shooting, the 17-year-old allegedly traded clothes with a male student and gave the backpack to a girl, who were arrested Tuesday. He says prosecutors must decide whether any of the three will face criminal charges.

A single bullet struck a 15-year-old boy in the neck and a 15-year-old girl in the head. A doctor says the boy is in good condition and the girl remains critical but has awakened.

The shooting occurred at 10:41 a.m., leading to a lockdown of the roughly 3,000 students who attend the school at 1301 W. 182nd St.

"The person that's responsible for this particular shooting came into a classroom, it appears set a backpack down on a desk and a gun that was inside that backpack discharged," Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Patrick Gannon said.

"The round from that gun hit both of the students," Gannon said. "The student then that was responsible for bringing the backpack into the classroom fled from that particular classroom and went to another. We have subsequently taken him into custody."

More than 3,000 students were at the campus, and they were held on lockdown until early afternoon, when parents were advised to go to the gate at Normandie Avenue and 178th Street to pick up their children. Parents were notified of the shooting through an automatic phone message system, police said.

Los Angeles School Police Department Chief Steve Zipperman said students and teachers were interviewed, and grief counselors were sent to the campus.

It was unclear how the student got the backpack onto the campus, where metal detectors are manned by school staff, not police. There was an armed school police officer on campus when the shooting occurred, Zipperman said.

Asked if the weapon was cocked, which might explain why it went off, Zipperman said, "In the issue of a gun that accidentally discharges, it would have to be an automatic weapon instead of a revolver. It was an automatic, although I do not have the make."

Zipperman said district policy calls for metal detectors to be used randomly on students.

"It is a possibility that today the student who walked on with that backpack was not checked," Zipperman said.

Zipperman said he did not know what the student might have told officers after his arrest.

Gardena High School senior Miguel Lopez, 17, told The Times he was in the health class when the gun went off as a male classmate was reaching into his backpack. He said the student, who he did not know, was not pointing the gun at anyone.

Lopez said two students sitting next to him near the back of the classroom were shot. The girl was shot in the temple, he said.

"She kind of was crying," Lopez told The Times. "She fell back into her chair and fell on the floor."

The student with the gun ran out of the classroom, and the teacher began screaming, Lopez told the paper.

Other students told The Times the suspect carried the gun for protection.