A sixth-grader opened fire on Thursday morning at her middle school in Idaho, western United States, slightly injuring three people before being disarmed by a teacher, local authorities said.
The shooter, educated at this college in the small town of Rigby, was quickly arrested by the police, who did not disclose her identity or age.
Sixth grade students are generally eleven or twelve years old.
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“This morning, around 9:08 am, a sixth grade student took a handgun from her backpack. She fired several bullets inside the facility and injured three people. Two of them are students and one is a school employee
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Jefferson County Sheriff Steve Anderson told a press conference. He stressed that the injuries were slight and that the lives of the three victims, taken to hospital, were not at stake.
“During the shooting, a teacher disarmed the student and held her until the police arrested her
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Sheriff Anderson added, without being able to explain the child's motives.
The shooting started in the entrance hall of the college and continued outside, he said.
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A recurring scourge in the United States, shootings regularly revive the debate on the proliferation of firearms in the country, without much concrete progress.
Many Americans remain very attached to their guns and have even rushed to buy more since the start of the pandemic, and even more during the major anti-racist protests of spring 2020 and the electoral tensions of the fall.
Last year, more than 43,000 people in the United States were killed by guns, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.
