Police detain suspect in shooting at Southern California school

Police vehicles are seen on the road near Highland High School, in Palmdale, California, U.S., May 11, 2018 in this picture grab obtained from social media video. MELENDEZ N JUNIOR/via REUTERS Police vehicles are seen on the road near Highland High School, in Palmdale, California, U.S., May 11, 2018 in this picture grab obtained from social media video. MELENDEZ N JUNIOR/via REUTERS

(Reuters) – A 14-year-old student at a California high school shot and wounded a fellow student on Friday morning before being detained by police, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

The victim, a 14-year-old boy, was hit in the arm and was in stable condition at a hospital. The suspect, also a boy, was detained off campus by officers, who recovered a rifle, according to the department.

Deputies responded to Highland High School in Palmdale, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles, at around 7 a.m. (1400 GMT) after receiving multiple reports of an armed person on campus.

The initial reports of a possible school shooting drew immediate attention from major news outlets and cable TV networks. It underscored the national debate over gun control and gun rights that was reignited by the mass shooting of 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Police were also called to a nearby elementary school after reports of gunfire but found no evidence of any crime.

Palmdale, a city of about 160,000 people, boasts that it is the “aerospace capital of the United States.” It is home to a U.S. Air Force aircraft manufacturing plant that includes production facilities operated by Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp and Northrop Grumman Corp.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, Jonathan Allen, Peter Szekely and Bernie Woodall; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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