Police arrest 2 in shooting near Los Angeles charter school
A Los Angeles police offIcer stands guard while police search for a shooting suspect at a Jack in the Box restaurant after a shooting in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. Los Angeles police say a shooting near a charter high school wounded a male teenage student and a female school employee. Sgt. Barry Montgomery says he cannot immediately say whether the victims were targeted in the shooting Thursday at a Jack in the Box restaurant across the street from the school. A Fire Department spokesperson said both victims have extremity wounds and were transported to a hospital in stable condition. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
LOS ANGELES — Police arrested two men and recovered a gun Thursday after a student and a teacher were wounded in a lunch-hour shooting at a fast-food restaurant across the street from a Los Angeles charter school, authorities said.
One suspect was located shortly after police arrived, and the other was found hours later following a search of the Van Nuys neighborhood, police Sgt. Barry Montgomery said.
The names of the men were not released, but police said both are between 18 and 20 years old.
It was unclear if the victims — a teenage male student and a female teacher — had been targeted.
Both suffered extremity wounds and were in stable condition when they were taken away by ambulances, fire department Deputy Chief Trevor Richmond said.
CHAMPS Charter High School of the Arts was locked down because of the proximity of the gunfire.
Anxious parents gathered nearby and were kept back during the search for the suspects. Officers told them everyone in the school was fine. Students could be seen in windows taking photographs of the scene with cellphones before they were later reunited with their parents through the school’s main office.
CHAMPS said in a statement that the shooting was unrelated to the school and that the campus was put on lockdown “in an abundance of caution.”
“The safety plans and security measure that CHAMPS has in place proved to work in keeping our students and faculty safe, which was and remains our utmost priority,” the school said.
Administrators have visited the wounded student and teacher and they were “alert, calm and OK,” the statement said.
School will be back in session Friday, when a crisis team with the mayor’s office will be on site for anyone who needs emotional support and there will be additional patrols.
Montgomery said information on the incident was preliminary but “we will get to the bottom of it.”
Pressed on the circumstances, he said, “I cannot answer the question as to whether they were targeted.”
The school is located in buildings in a business district of the San Fernando Valley about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
