California Boy, 14, Shoots High School Student

A 14-year-old boy shot and wounded a student at a Southern California high school Friday before being taken into custody, police said.

The victim, a 15-year-old student at Highland High School in Palmdale, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles, was listed in stable condition at a nearby hospital, said Nicole Nishida, a public information officer for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Officials had initially said the victim was 14 years old.

The suspect, a former student at the same high school, was detained off campus. A rifle apparently used in the shooting was recovered.

Nishida said a motive for the incident, which took place at about 7 a.m., was unknown. The sheriff’s department on its Twitter account called it an “isolated shooting.”

Initial reports of a possible school mass shooting drew immediate attention from major news outlets and cable TV networks.

It underscored the national debate over gun control and gun rights that was reignited by the mass shooting of 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Nishida said sheriff’s deputies were also called to a nearby elementary school after reports of gunfire but found no evidence of any crime.

Palmdale, a city of about 160,000 people that calls itself the “aerospace capital of the United States,” is home to an Air Force aircraft manufacturing plant that includes production facilities operated by Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp and Northrop Grumman Corp.

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