The suspect in a mass shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School was able to bring a gun into the school after he was let in by another student through an “unsecured door,” an arrest warrant affidavit said.
Related:Day after shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, several questions remain
The shooting sent at least four students to the hospital and countless others scrambling after shots rang out in a hallway just after 1 p.m. Tuesday. Active call logs for Dallas police show at least 60 units responded to the scene. Tracy Denard Haynes Jr., 17, turned himself in to authorities late Tuesday after he was identified as the suspect by police.
According to the affidavit, Haynes was seen on surveillance footage entering the school through an unsecured door after an unidentified student opened it for him. Haynes then walked through the hallways until he spotted several male students.
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Related:Wilmer-Hutchins High School: What we know about the shooting incident
Haynes then displayed a firearm and opened fire “indiscriminately,” striking five students before approaching one student “who was not able to run.” Haynes then appeared to take a “point-blank” shot, the affidavit said.
Haynes’ aunt, Cynthia Haynes, told The Dallas Morning News she was “shocked” to hear her nephew was possibly involved. After hearing news late Tuesday that Haynes had turned himself in, she said the family remained in disbelief.
“He was not raised like that,” she said. “He came from a good family.”
Dallas ISD assistant police chief Christina Smith said Tuesday at a news conference that four students were injured.
Jason Evans, a Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson, said Tuesday that three students between the ages of 15 and 18 were “confirmed to have been injured by gunfire,” while a fourth person, whose age was not known, suffered a “musculoskeletal injury” to the lower body.
Evans said Friday that a fifth person — a 14-year-old girl — was also taken to a hospital with symptoms related to anxiety about an hour after the initial four students. She was not shot, he added.
A Dallas ISD spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the apparent discrepancy in the number of people shot.
The shooting happened nearly one year to the day after a shooting incident last year. Wilmer-Hutchins has security protocols in place, which include a clear backpack policy and metal detectors, though students told The News they didn’t feel the school had good security.
Smith said Tuesday that the shooting was not “a failure of our staff, of our protocols, or of the machinery that we have,” since the gun did not enter the school during “regular intake time.”
Haynes remained in custody at the Dallas County jail Wednesday on $600,000 bail. It was not immediately clear if he has retained an attorney.
Classes at Wilmer-Hutchins have been canceled for the rest of the week following the shooting.
Staff writer Milla Surjadi contributed to this report.
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