MOUNT HOREB, Wis. — School officials say an active shooter was “neutralized” at a high school west of Madison, Wis., Wednesday morning, with no injuries reported to people inside the school. However, the event has left the small community shaken.
The Mount Horeb Area School District said the shooter “did not breach the entrance” to the high school and there were “no reports of injuries to anyone other than the alleged assailant.”
Witnesses described hearing gunshots and seeing dozens of children running.
“There's just a bunch of police officers just kind of banging on the door and making sure it's barricaded, and our (substitute teacher) that we had was at the door ready,” a witness told CBS News . “We're all sitting there crying and texting our parents.”
More than a dozen law enforcement vehicles were at the scene, including SWAT-style trucks with flashing emergency lights. Also visible were the first ones surrounding a stretcher on the sidewalk.
The district reported that its initial search of the school “has not yielded any additional suspects.”
The district had begun releasing some students from other schools by early afternoon, and anxious parents gathered at a bus depot waiting to be reunited with their children.
Max Kelly, 12, said his teacher told the class to leave the school. He said they skated to a street, ditched their inline skates and ran to a nearby convenience store and gas station and hid in a bathroom.
Kelly reunited with her parents and sat on a hillside with them early Wednesday afternoon waiting for her younger siblings to be released from their own schools. He was still wearing socks, his shoes were left behind.
“I don't think there's any safe place anymore,” said her mother, Alison Kelly, 32.
Shannon Hurd, 44, and her ex-husband, Nathian Hurd, 39, sat in a car waiting for their 13-year-old son, Noah, who was still at the closed high school.
Shannon Hurd said she was alerted to the incident by a text message from Noah saying he loved her. She said she almost fell down the stairs at work while running to get to school.
“I just want my son,” she said. “They're supposed to be safe at school, at Mount Horeb of all places.”
Schools across the country have sought ways to prevent mass shootings within their walls, from physical security measures to active shooter response drills to technology, including detailed digital maps. Many also rely on teachers and administrators who work to spot early signs of mental health problems.
Mount Horeb is about 25 miles west of Madison.
