Student and police officer wounded after shooting near Arkansas school

The wounded police officer is taken by stretcher into a hospital

May 11, 2000
Web posted at: 6:43 p.m. EDT (2243 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

PRAIRIE GROVE, Arkansas (CNN) -- A seventh-grade student who left school in an apparent fit of rage and a police officer were injured Thursday after shooting each other in an altercation in a hay field north of the student's school.

Both the officer and the male student were taken to the Washington Regional Center; the officer with wounds to the front and rear torso, the boy with a single body wound. Their conditions were not known.

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The 12-year-old boy is a seventh-grader at Prairie Grove Junior High. The exchange of gunfire did not happen on school grounds.

A State Police spokeswoman said the boy left the school angered that he had been accused of something by the principal.

After leaving school, the boy obtained a shotgun from his family home, authorities said.

But Prairie Grove Police Chief Robin Casey said investigators were still trying to sort out the details.

"There was something that happened, but we don't know exactly what," Casey said.

The wounded officer, Sgt. Ray Lovett, 40, a 20-year veteran of the force, responded to a police call about a young boy walking down a county road.

When he got there, the suspect was in a field, barely visible above the tall, uncut grass, Casey said.

"The officer called out to him, the boy raised his head and opened fire," he said. "He hit the officer three times and the officer fired back," using a 40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol.

Asked about Lovett's condition, Casey said, "I talked to him, I know he's doing all right but that's all I know right now."

Lovett is married and the father of a 12-year-old boy, Casey said.

The police chief said no decision had been made on whether to charge the boy as a juvenile or adult. "It'll be up to the prosecutor," he said.

Prairie Grove is a town of about 1,800 around 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of Fayetteville in the northwest corner of Arkansas.

The school made headlines last October when six boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 15 who called themselves "Prep Killers" were charged with making death threats against classmates.

The six students, who were arrested after some of the threats were reported to police, told investigators they had agreed among themselves to kill four fellow students on Halloween night.

No connection was made between the boy involved in Thursday's shooting and last autumn's incident.

A series of shootings across the United States has made gun control a feature of this year's presidential election and a mass Mother's Day protest against gun violence is planned for Sunday in Washington.

Another Arkansas town, Jonesboro, was the scene of a school shooting in March 1998, when two boys ages 11 and 13 killed four fellow students and a teacher and wounded 10 other people.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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CDC: Facts About Violence Among Youth and Violence in Schools
National Center for Education Statistics
  • Statistical analysis report: Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools, 1996-97
National Alliance for Safe Schools
Gun-free Schools Act of 1994

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