One teen shoots, injures another at Salt Lake City-area school

One teen was in critical but stable condition at a Salt Lake City-area hospital Tuesday night and another was being held at a juvenile detention center after a shooting at a suburban school, police in Sandy, Utah, said.

The situation erupted Tuesday afternoon, when a 14-year-old boy shot a 16-year-old boy at the Union Middle School at around 3 p.m. local time as students were being released for the day, police said.

“There were dozens of students and witnesses right in that immediate area,” Sgt. Dean Carriger, public information officer for the Sandy Police Department, told USA TODAY by phone.

Police did not yet have a motive and did not provide the identities of either of the teens. The incident is still under investigation, Carriger said.

The incident started out as an argument between the two boys, ABC4 Utah reported.

The boys were going to engage in a fistfight when the 14-year-old pulled a gun, a witness told Fox13. After firing two shots, the suspect then fell to the ground, crying, the witness told Fox13.

The 14-year-old suspect was charged with attempted murder and two counts of felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, police said. He was being held at the Salt Lake County Juvenile Detention Center, according to police.

The 16-year-old who was shot underwent surgery at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, and was in critical but stable condition Tuesday night. The victim was not a student at the middle school, according to a police statement.

The school was on lockdown for about 30 minutes as a result of the incident, Carriger said.

“The school did a great job,” he said. “The school district here has implemented policies and procedures in the wake of violence around the country.”

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