A teenager who was involved in a shooting on Thursday with Houston police fled into a nearby high school, resulting in a lockdown of the campus and his arrest, police said. No injuries inside the school were reported.
The teenager was part of a group of individuals who had been under surveillance by a crime suppression unit late Thursday morning at an apartment complex on the city’s west side when one of the suspects exchanged gunfire with an officer, said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
The 18-year-old suspect was shot in the knee and he along with a 17-year-old were arrested at the complex. But a third suspect, who was 17 or 18 years old, fled the scene and got a ride from a local resident to Wisdom High School, located about 1 mile away, Finner said. Police did not release the names of the three suspects.
"We interviewed that citizen and ... he gave that kid a ride back to the school — didn’t know that he was involved in anything," Finner said.
The suspect who traveled to the high school and one of the two arrested at the complex are enrolled at the school, according to authorities.
Houston school district Police Chief Pete Lopez said as soon as his agency was notified the suspect had entered the high school, the campus was placed on lockdown.
After arriving at the campus, the suspect went into the school’s auditorium, which had at least 100 students, Finner said.
"We were able with our SWAT teams and other police officers, went in and got that suspect out safely with no one hurt," he said.
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Officers were still searching the campus to determine if the suspect had brought a weapon, according to Finner.
Finner said when the suspect was in the auditorium, the other students were not aware and "thought it was business as usual."
"It ended as well as expected," he said.
The three suspects are expected to face charges of aggravated assault of a police officer and possibly additional counts, Finner said.
