‘I just want my child’: 1 student dead, 1 in custody after shooting at Bowie High School

A student was killed and another was taken into custody after a shooting Wednesday afternoon outside James Bowie High School in Arlington that put the campus on lockdown.

The victim was 18 years old, police said, and the suspect is a 17-year-old boy, but neither has been publicly identified.

Police received reports of shots fired near a portable building on campus a little before 3 p.m., according to a Wednesday evening news release. School resource officers responded and found the victim lying unresponsive on the ground. Officers attempted “life-saving measures” until paramedics arrived, officials said.

The victim was shot “up to five or six” times, Arlington police Chief Al Jones said during a news conference. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Jones said.

Jones said the suspect attempted to flee the area, but officers found him on the perimeter. He will face a murder charge, according to the release.

“Honestly, I’m at a loss for words tonight by this tragedy at Bowie High School this afternoon,” said Arlington ISD Superintendent Matt Smith. “Schools are supposed to be a place of learning and growth, and this afternoon that was interrupted by senseless violence.”

The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office will identify the victim, the release stated. Detectives are working to determine a motive, but officials said “it appears the suspect and victim knew each other.”

Officers were still on the scene as of 5:30 p.m. outside the school in the 2100 block of Highbank Drive, near Sherry Street.

About 6 miles away, nearly a half-dozen buses were seen pulling into the Arlington Independent School District’s Athletics Center, where the district said parents could pick up students. Cars lined up at businesses near the building as throngs of adults anxiously waited.

A passerby driving along East Division Street slowed down in front of the athletics center and shouted at the officer near the gate: “Where do they want us to go?”

AT&T Stadium served as a backdrop for numerous emergency vehicles that remained at the center.

Officials began busing all students and staff to the athletics center, at 1001 E. Division Street, about 5:15 p.m., according to school officials. Parents and guardians were asked to check in with an ID at the natatorium for pick up.

David Barrera said he was in Garland when he heard about the shooting, and got to Arlington — about a 37-mile drive — in what seemed like 20 minutes.

His granddaughter, Amiah, was texting him updates, as she rode a bus to the athletics center.

“Stay where you are”

“I’ll go to you”

“I’m still in the bus”

As he waited outside the area where Amiah was reuniting with her parents, Barrera said he was glad that no officers were hurt, but sad for the person who was shot.

“I’m sad for that person, because we all have moms and dads. We all have brothers and sisters,” Barrera said.

He said he thought about all of the other parents there, who were waiting just like them, calling the situation frustrating and sad.

There was a long, tearful hug once the wait was over.

Barrera said he was going to let his granddaughter “come together” before he tried to talk about what happened, but that they would at some point.

“You want to protect all your children,” Barrera said. “All of us as parents are not superman. We can’t be everywhere at the same time.”

Bowie High School, which opened in 1973, had just under 2,400 students in the 2022-23 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, with a student/teacher ratio of about 15 to 1.

Erica Sims was driving up and down the neighborhood streets trying to find her daughter, a sophomore.

She said her daughter knows both the suspected shooter and the victim.

“It’s a lot,” Sims said. “I don’t feel safe. I don’t know how do we proceed from this point. I’ve never been involved in something like this and I just want my child.”

Sims said she also had a son who is a senior and left the campus before noon.

“I dropped to my knees and prayed, called my family and let them know what was going on. But I’m still very, very nervous and still very, very shaken up about it.”

The school said in a social media post that classes are canceled Thursday and students “will have the full support of Arlington ISD’s counseling team” when they return.

“As a society, we have to stop resorting to violence,” Jones said. “Violence is never the answer.”

Less than two weeks ago, on April 12, a student was shot and wounded inside a classroom at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southeast Oak Cliff.

The student was struck in the upper thigh, an injury police said was not life-threatening. The following Monday, students walked out in protest, saying they did not feel safe on campus and wanted school leaders to do more.

Last year, Ja’Shawn Poirier, 16, was shot and killed outside Lamar High School in Arlington on March 20. The shooter, who was not tried as an adult, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in September. He was 16-years-old at the time of his sentencing. The Tarrant County district attorney’s office said he will have a hearing on his 19th birthday to determine whether he’ll be transferred to an adult prison.

Three people were hospitalized after a shooting at Timberview High on Oct. 6, 2021. The school is part of Mansfield ISD but is in Arlington, a little more than three miles from Bowie High School. The shooter was sentenced in July to 12 years in prison after being convicted of attempted capital murder.

Staff photographer Elias Valverde II contributed to this report.