Shooting at Harrisburg High School
Shots were fired at Harrisburg High School on Wednesday morning. Superintendant Jim Holbeck says Principal Kevin Lein was injured with just a flesh wound.
Sioux Falls Police Information Officer Sam Clemens says, "All the kids are safe. That's the main message here."
Clemens described the incident as happening very quickly. "The first call was at 10:00 AM. There was a student that entered Harrisburg High School. He made his way to the main office. Once inside the office he ended up struggling with the principal. There was some kind of a physical struggle. During the course of that, the student ended up pulling out a hand gun and the principal was shot one time in the arm. As soon as the shot happened, there was another staff member that heard that and went running to the sound. He ended up tackling that teenager and held him there until law enforcement came."
Ryan Rollinger is the Assistant Principal of Harrisburg High School and he was the first one to arrive. Soon afterward, Athletic Director Joey Struwe assisted in holding down the shooter.
The school was placed into lockdown. Police say the shooter who is a student at the school is in custody. High School students were transported via bus to Harrisburg South Middle School for parents to pick them up. School remained in session for all other attendance centers in the Harrisburg School District. "We had no reason to believe that this was going to happen at any other school," Holbeck said.
No access was allowed on the school grounds after the incident. Clemens says that's part of the protocol. "A lot of that is just precautionary. We didn't have any indication that there was any kind of device. The (ATF) is checking to see if everything is safe." Once the all-clear was given then students and staff would be able to have access to their vehicles.
Reports from Tea Area Schools say that the school there was placed on a precautionary lock down. There were no threats, but school officials are taking the threat in Harrisburg seriously.
Minnehaha County SWAT team was called to assist with the situation along with the South Dakota Highway Patrol. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office was the lead organization with the effort.
Streets around Harrisburg High School have been blocked around the school.
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