Students are reunited with family following a shooting at Berrendo Middle School, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, in Roswell, New Mexico. The school was placed on lockdown. AP PHOTO/ROSWELL DAILY RECORD, MARK WILSON
ROSWELL, New Mexico—A gunman opened fire Tuesday morning at a New Mexico school, critically injuring at least two students before being taken into custody.
Officials at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, said a 14-year-old boy was flown there in critical condition and a 13-year-old girl was en route in serious condition. Information from nurses treating the boy indicated he was the shooter’s target, hospital spokesman Eric Finley said.
The gunman opened fire at Berrendo Middle School as classes were starting for the day.
Brooke Linthicum of Eastern New Mexico Regional Medical Center said two children were being treated, but it was unclear if either of those victims was then transferred to Texas.
Lorena Beltran told the Albuquerque Journal that her daughter, who attends the school, said a male student was shot in the face.
Roswell police say the school was placed on lockdown, and the suspected shooter was arrested. Age and other details on the gunman were not immediately released.
Student Anyssa Vegara said she was talking to a security guard when she heard a shot.
“I turned around, and all I saw was someone on the floor with their arm bleeding,” Vegara told the Journal.
Roswell is perhaps best-known as the site of an alleged UFO crash in 1947.