Parents Reunited With Students Following Fatal Shooting Outside Richfield School
RICHFIELD, Minn. (WCCO) -- Parents reunited with their children at Donaldson Park on Tuesday following a shooting outside a Richfield school which left one student dead and another in critical condition.
The shooting happened shortly after noon outside the South Education Center. The suspects fled soon after, and the school went into "hard lockdown," with federal and local officers responded to the area.
Richfield police arrested two suspects about six hours after the shooting. Close family friends of the teen who died told WCCO he is 15-year-old Jahmari Rice.
Donaldson Park was designated as an area "for parents" on Tuesday afternoon, as they gathered and anxiously waited for more information as the situation unfolded.
Shortly before 3 p.m., Metro Transit buses started shuttling kids from the school, which is about three blocks east, to the park.
Some students at this school use wheelchairs, while some are nonverbal and have learning differences. Parents who already have a heightened awareness of their children's needs now having to talk to them about this trauma.
They parents quickly reunited with their kids, not too many lingering hugs, and got them into vehicles as soon as possible.
Parent Mark Brull, whose daughter Maya attends South Education Center, spoke to reporters at the park.
"School shootings are the incomprehensible thing that's going on in this country. It's horrifying. It's something that I can't understand," Brull said. "And it rips at the fabric of our kids and their lives, and cuts us deeper than any of us should be cut."
He said the event inflicted a compounding trauma on many students.
"These are kids with special needs. They struggle with discrimination, they struggle to do everything they do harder than any of us," Brull said. "And for them to be put through this ... just adds to the injustice, it adds to how horrible the situation really is."
He also praised his daughter's teachers, and said they calmly did activities with the kids during lockdown.
Joe Carr's mother was finally able to pick up her son Tuesday afternoon.
"All of a sudden Joe texted me saying 'I'm OK but we're in a lockdown,' and just worried because me and my coworkers started googling and figured out what was going on" she said. "But just glad to hear Joe was safe but was really sad to hear about some of the other families."
District 287 Superintendent Sandra Lewandowski said in a statement Thursday that she gave her "deepest condolences" to the victims' family and friends.
"To us, they're our students that come through our doors every day. We care for them, and this is a terrible tragedy and loss," Lewandowski said.
South Education Center will be closed on Wednesday.