A typical day at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas turned into a nightmare after gunfire sent a mass of students fleeing up and down the hallways. New police documents detail what happened moments before the event. It’s even more shocking than you think…
Dallas police say the shooting happened Tuesday afternoon. A teen who they identified as 17-year-old Tracy Haynes Jr. was seen on surveillance footage walking down a hallway toward a group of boys. Suddenly, he pulled out a gun and began firing. Police say he also walked up to one student who struggled to run away and shot him at point-blank range but his gun jammed, per CBS.
No fatalities have been counted yet but authorities say four male victims were hospitalized and one remains in critical condition, per FOX 4 News. All are expected to recover, according to Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins.
There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding the shooting but slowly, pieces are coming together. A DeSoto man told CBS he gave the suspect a ride that morning, dropping him off at a gas station after the teen claimed he crashed his car. Hours later, the man saw the headlines about the shooting.
Additionally, investigators’ review of surveillance footage determined that an unnamed student let Haynes inside the school through an “unsecured door,” the report says.
Police have not ruled on a potential motive for the shooting beyond a random act of violence. However, a high school junior told NBC Dallas Forth-Worth she believed it stemmed from a dispute over a game of dice.
“They said that they were playing a dice game, I guess that’s what it was over, I guess he lost his money, the boy that was shooting,” she told reporters.
Other students who had no clue what led to the shooting were left traumatized by the sound of loud gunshots and scrambling with teachers to secure the classrooms.
“I realized it was a gun. I felt scared, my heart was beating, and I just started crying because I didn’t know what to do,” said Smith, adding that her friend was one of the victim’s of the shooting. “When I heard they got shot, I started crying even more. I called [the victim’s] cousin last night and she told me he is okay. You can’t trust nobody at this rate.”
Dallas ISD Assistant Chief of Police Christina Smith said the gun entered the building outside the regular flow of traffic. Therefore, “it was not a failure of our staff, of our protocols, or of the machinery that we have,” she said in a statement. Classes were canceled for the rest of the week.
On the other hand, Haynes turned himself in and was charged with four counts of aggravated assault, a first-degree felony. He’s being held in Dallas County Jail on a $600,000 bond. If released, he will be ordered to wear an ankle monitor, per the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office.