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Tanglewood Middle School responders: 12-year-old accused of murder
Photo: Mike Ellis/AP
A 12-year-old boy is said to have shot and killed a classmate of the same age at a school in the US state of South Carolina.
The suspected boy from Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville was arrested, the sheriff's office said on Thursday evening (local time).
The 12-year-old is charged with murder and unlawful possession of weapons as a person under the age of 18, among other things.
Police officers found the alleged perpetrator
A security guard at the school heard shots and then called for backup, they said.
Emergency services found the victim injured when they arrived.
The boy was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Police officers found the suspect after a search at a residential building and arrested him.
A weapon was seized.
'He's hiding.
He's a young man and he probably didn't understand the consequences of what just happened," Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at a news conference.
The two boys would have known each other, it is said.
However, the motive for the crime is unclear.
Investigators also want to find out how the suspect got his gun.
ptz/dpa/AP