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Student Wounded In Shooting At Hendersonville Middle School

UPDATE Wednesday 12:00 p.m. - Hendersonville officials have released new details about the suspect in Tuesday morning's shooting at Hendersonville Middle School.  Authorities confirm that it was a handgun that was used in the shooting at the school's gymnasium which left a 12-year-old female student with a wound in the leg.  The victim was taken to Mission Hospital in Asheville where she was in stable condition and resting comfortably Tuesday afternoon according to a spokesperson.  Hendersonville officials also now say the suspect in the case is 13-years-old and 12 as originally reported.  That does not affect the two charges he is facing - one count of felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, and one count of having a weapon or on campus or other education property.

FROM TUESDAY

UPDATE 6:00 p.m. - Police in Hendersonville have charged a student with two counts for Tuesday morning's shooting that wounded another student at Hendersonville Middle School.

The juvenile, who has not been identified, was charged with one count of felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, and one count of having a weapon or on campus or other education property.  Authorities say the male student shot a female student in the leg in the gymnasium of the school around 7:45 Tuesday morning.  The victim was taken to Mission Hospital in Asheville, where she was in stable condition and resting comfortably according to a spokesperson.

UPDATE 4:00 p.m. - Tuesday morning's shooting at Hendersonville Middle School that left a 12-year-old female student with a gunshot wound to the leg occurred in the school's gymnasium.  The suspected shooter was then detained by a school administrator.“A student discharged a firearm in the gymnasium and that resulted in wounding another student," Henderson County Public Schools spokesperson Molly McGowan Gorsuch said in an interview with BPR.  "Thankfully that student is in stable condition at Mission Hospital and that juvenile suspect was immediately detained. And that was done obviously in collaboration with our law enforcement but it also thanks to a quick thinking school administrator.”  Gorsuch went on to say there haven't been any incidents of this nature in the school system since bomb threats that were made in 2017.  Police are still investigating the details of the shooting.

Henderson County Public Schools are currently under a Plan B schedule due to the pandemic.  Students at Hendersonville Middle attend in-person classes twice a week on a rotating basis.  All other school days are remote.

***CORRECTION - Statement made by county schools spokesperson has been corrected for accuracy from its initial version***

UPDATE 12:30 p.m. - A 12-year-old female student at Hendersonville Middle School is in stable condition after being shot in the leg by another student at the school Tuesday morning.

An update on the shooting Tuesday morning by authorities provided only details on the victim and the suspect, not the circumstances around the shooting.  The victim was taken to Mission Hospital after being shot in the leg.  "Our patient from the event at Hendersonville Middle School is in good, stable condition and resting comfortably. Her family requests privacy at this time," said hospital spokesperson Nancy Lindell. 

The student accused of the shooting is male and in custody of the Hendersonville Police Department.  Police are asking anyone with additional information about the incident to contact them at 828-697-3025.

EARLIER VERSION OF STORY

A student at Hendersonville Middle School was wounded Tuesday morning after being shot by another student according to Henderson County Public Schools and the Hendersonville Police Department.Authorities say the shooting took place at the school at 7:45 a.m.  The shooter was immediately detained by a school administrator, and then placed in the custody of Hendersonville police.  A lockdown of the school was eased once the suspect was detained.  The 12-year-old student who was wounded was shot once in the leg.  They were taken to Mission Hospital.  Students were dismissed from school by 10:30 Tuesday morning.

This story will be updated

Matt Bush joined Blue Ridge Public Radio as news director in August 2016. Excited at the opportunity the build up the news service for both stations as well as help launch BPR News, Matt made the jump to Western North Carolina from Washington D.C. For the 8 years prior to coming to Asheville, he worked at the NPR member station in the nation's capital as a reporter and anchor. Matt primarily covered the state of Maryland, including 6 years of covering the statehouse in Annapolis. Prior to that, he worked at WMAL in Washington and Metro Networks in Pittsburgh, the city he was born and raised in.