A youth with a shaved head crouched in a sniper position with two guns and opened fire at his high school in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, California, yesterday afternoon, hitting at least five people with shotgun pellets before police shot and injured him, officials said.
Police identified the gunman as Jason Hoffman (18), a senior at Granite Hills High.
"He was not a popular guy," said one student, Ainohh Hogan, "I heard he was picked on."
Granite Hills is just a few miles south of Santee, where on March 5th two Santana High students were shot dead and 13 other people wounded, allegedly by a 15-year-old classmate.
"A guy just got out of a car, crouched into . . . like, a sniper position, and just started opening fire," one student, Chris Weston, said.
"It seemed to be a shotgun, and it was at least eight shots," he said. "One of them came two inches away from my head."
"If I wouldn't have ducked, I would have been shot," he said. "He reloaded a second time, and the second time I got out of there."
Students fled the school by a back entrance as an officer who was assigned to the school engaged the gunman in a brief gun battle. Frantic parents descended on the school looking for their children, while students used their cell phones to call home and reassure parents they were all right.
Ms Wendy Buerster, whose daughter Christina attends Granite Hills, said Christina (16) heard rumours last week that there would be a shooting on campus. Ms Buerster said her daughter recorded the rumours in her journal and may have alerted a vice-principal.
"We started worrying after the Santana High School shooting," she added.
A spokeswoman for Sharp Memorial Hospital said 10 people were treated for injuries from the attack, including a 16-year-old boy who was hit in the upper face and chest with buckshot and was listed in serious condition. She said his wounds were not considered life-threatening.
Hoffman was also listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds to the face and buttocks, the spokeswoman said. She said the other victims, who included at least one teacher, had less serious injuries.
One student hurt her back in a fall, another reported heart trouble and a woman went into labour after arriving at the school to pick up her daughter, she said.