Maryland High School Shooting Live Updates: Active Shooter Reported at Great Mills

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Update: 2 p.m. EDT—The St. Mary's County Sheriff shed new light on the high school shooting in Maryland on Tuesday afternoon, though the shooter's motive remains unclear.

Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, allegedly opened fire with a Glock semi-automatic handgun after speaking with a 16-year-old girl, with whom he had a prior relationship, in a Great Mills High School hallway at about 7:55 a.m., Sheriff Timothy Cameron told reporters at a press briefing.

It was not clear what spurred the shooting, which also left a 14-year-old boy wounded, Cameron said. Both victims were later rushed to area hospitals. The girl was being treated in the intensive care unit with "life-threatening critical injuries," Cameron said. The boy was listed in stable condition.

Cameron said the school's lone resource officer, Blaine Gaskill, responded to the shooting within seconds. That officer and the shooter fired nearly simultaneously. The suspect was shot during the exchange and died from his wounds at 10:41 a.m. at a local hospital, Cameron said. Detectives are investigating whether the officer fired the fatal shot.

Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in 2014, became noticeably emotional during the briefing and called on lawmakers to pass stricter gun legislation.

"It's tragic. Our hearts are broken and we're extremely saddened and our thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims and the students and their families," he said, adding, "We need more than prayers."

Hogan, who has previously endorsed three separate firearms measures, again expressed his support for so-called "red flag" laws that would allow judges to permit law enforcement to remove firearms from people who are deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others.

"No community should ever have to go through this again," he said.

Rollins did not appear to have been on the Sheriff Department's radar at the time of the shooting.

"We haven't found any pre-incident signs as of yet, either on social media or any other evidence," Cameron said.

It was unclear how the shooter obtained the firearm he used. Unlike in Parkland, Florida, where a 19-year-old killed 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a legally purchased AR-15 last month, the 17-year-old shooter Great Mills is too young to legally purchase any firearm—rifle, shotgun or handgun—in Maryland.

The state prohibits any sales of firearms or ammunition to any individual under the age of 21.

There does not, however, appear to be a minimum age to possess a rifle or shotgun in Maryland, according to Giffords, a gun violence prevention organization.

Update noon EDT—The suspect who opened fire in a Maryland high school has died after shooting two students and exchanging gunfire with a school resource officer, police said.

St. Mary's County Sheriff Timothy Cameron said the student, whose identity was not revealed, walked into Great Mills High School in the town of Great Mills shortly before 8 a.m. and began shooting.

"A male student produced a handgun and fired a round, wounding a female student and another male student in a hallway of Great Mills High School just before classes began," Cameron said at a press briefing at about 11:30 a.m.

Cameron said a school resource officer engaged the suspect after he was alerted to the shooting.

"He pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, during which [...] he fired a round at the shooter," Cameron said. "Simultaneously, the shooter fired a round as well."

Cameron said the shooter was mortally wounded during the incident, though it was not yet clear if the school resource officer's round struck him.

"At 10:41, the shooter was confirmed deceased," he said.

Emergency responders transported both victims—a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy—to separate area hospitals. It remained unclear what the victims' relationship to the shooter was, as did the motive.

The resource officer was not wounded during the incident.

Cameron added that his department and the county schools regularly train for such shootings. The last such training occurred within the past calendar year, he said.

"This is what we train for, this is what we prepare for and this is what we pray we never have to do. And on this day we realized our worst nightmare: that our greatest asset—our children—was attacked in one of our places of a bastion of safety and security," he said.

"So obviously that's what we're talking about right now across the country," Cameron continued. "The notion of, 'It can't happen here' is no longer a notion."

"Despite training," he said, "you hope that you never have to do this, ever."

Cameron asked that the community prays for the victims.

The shooting comes days after students at Great Mills, as well as nearby Leonardtown and Chopticon high schools, participated in the national school walkout to protest gun violence and urge politicians for stricter gun legislation, according to The BayNet, a community news website for southern Maryland.

President Donald Trump has been notified of the shooting and the White House is monitoring developments, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Fox News.

The FBI is also investigating the incident.

Update 10:09 a.m. EDT—St. Maryland County Sheriff Tim Cameron said two students were wounded after another student pulled out a gun and opened fire around 8 a.m., according to WRC, NBC's Washington, D.C., station.

Cameron said the shooter walked into Great Mills High School as the school day began and opened fire, hitting a female student in the hallway and a male student. It was not immediately clear what the victims' relationship to the shooter was. Both victims were in critical condition.

The gunman was later shot after exchanging gunfire with a school resource officer, the station reported. The suspect was also in critical condition.

"This is the realization of your worst nightmare—that, in a school, that our children could be attacked," Cameron told the outlet. "And so as quickly … as that SRO responded and engaged, there's grievous injuries to two students."

"You train to respond to this and you hope that you never ever have to," he said. "Now begins the second phase of this operation and that's the background and the investigation and the attempt for the school to return to normal, so to speak."

Representative Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and his party's second-ranking member in the House, tweeted a statement offering his "prayers" for the students, parents and teachers at Great Mills High School.

"I'm closely monitoring reports of an incident at Great Mills High School in St. Mary's County. My prayers are with the students, parents, and teachers. Please follow instruction from local law enforcement responding on the scene."

Hoyer applauded the Florida state legislature for passing several gun regulations in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last month. He has also been an outspoken critic of elected officials who appear "cowed" by the National Rifle Association.

Hoyer pledged to support the Stop School Violence Act, which Republicans introduced after the tragedy in Parkland.

Update: 9:40 a.m. EDT—Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, offered his prayers to the victims and first responders and said he's "closely monitoring the situation" in a 9:03 a.m. tweet.

"We are closely monitoring the situation at Great Mills High School," Hogan tweeted. "@MDSP [Maryland State Police] is in touch with local law enforcement and ready to provide support. Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders."

In 2014, the National Rifle Association's political action committee, the NRA- Political Victory Fund, endorsed Hogan for governor.

"The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is proud to endorse Larry Hogan for Governor of Maryland," the gun group said in a statement. "This endorsement is based on Hogan's support for and commitment to the Second Amendment."

Update: 9:13 a.m. EDT—St. Mary's County Public School announced via Facebook that the St. Mary's County Sheriff was on scene as of about 8:50 local time.

"There has been a tragic shooting at Great Mills High School. The St. Mary's County Sheriff is on the scene and the event is contained," the post read. "The school is on lockdown, and we ask that you do not come to the school at this time."

Great Mills High School students will be transported to the Leonardtown High School auditorium, according to the statement. The school district asked parents or guardians to head there to reunite with the children.

Special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Baltimore Hyattsville I and II field offices were also responding to the scene.

Great Mills is about 60 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.

Original story:

Police are investigating reports of an active shooter at a high school in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and several wounded students Tuesday morning—just a month after two high school students in that area were arrested for threatening to a mass shooting in the days after one occurred at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

The shooting broke out at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Maryland, according to WRC, NBC's Washington, D.C., station. The Sheriff's department was responding to the area, where several people had been wounded, the outlet reported.

The St. Mary's County Public Schools confirmed the shooting at Great Mills to WJZ, CBS Baltimore. The high school is on lockdown.

The shooting comes weeks after two high school students were arrested for plotting to carry out another mass shooting at nearby Leonard High School. The St. Mary's County Sheriff's detectives arrested the teens, ages 15 and 16, after receiving a tip that they had been talking about bringing firearms to school and believed they were "too smart to be caught," according to WTTG.

Students and gun violence prevention activists are planning a nationwide march on Saturday to pressure elected officials on passing stricter gun legislation. Survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting planned the "March For Our Lives" demonstration after a gunman killed 17 people there on February 14.