Boy, 12, opens fire at US New Mexico school

Gun Concealed In Bag

A state police lieutenant who had been dropping off his own child at the New Mexico school helped in detaining the shooter, but by then the boy had already put down the gun, officials said. The boy's motive remains unclear, police said.

The school, which was placed on lockdown after the 7:30 am shooting, serves students in grades six through eight, and officials said teachers had received training in how to react to a shooter.

The 12-year-old boy arrived with a shotgun concealed in a bag, said New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas. He commended staff at the school for their quick response to the shooting.

"It's one thing for an armed state police officer to enter the school and do his or her job," Kassetas said. "It's another thing for a teacher, staff member to intervene in a situation like this."

A staff member at the school received "very minor injuries" and declined medical care, Martinez said. It was unclear if that was the same person who asked the boy to give up his shotgun or how the staff member was injured.

"I can stand here and tell you that in the 10 seconds that transpired from the time of this thing starting until the teacher had control of the weapon, there was no cowardice," said Roswell Independent School District Superintendent Tom Burris.

The wounded boy was shot in the face, students told the Albuquerque Journal. Sixth-grade student Anyssa Vegara told the paper she was talking to a security guard when she heard a shot.

"I turned around and all I saw was someone on the floor with their arm bleeding," Anyssa told the Journal.

Classes at Berrendo Middle School would be canceled on Wednesday and resume on Thursday, Burris said.

Roswell, a city of 48,000 people in southeastern New Mexico, is best known for its association with UFO lore because of the 1947 crash at a nearby site of an object UFO proponents believe was an alien ship. The US military says materials recovered near the site were from an experimental surveillance craft.