WEDNESDAY NEWS LINKS:

Shooting at Lone Star College Causes Widespread Panic In Wake of Other Recent Incidents

Posted byHoumanitarian

Mike Tolson, Houston Chronicle
With memories painfully fresh and nerves still raw after the Connecticut elementary school massacre, the nation suddenly turned its attention to a community college campus in suburban Houston on Tuesday afternoon, fearful that another violent incident was shredding any lingering notion of safety in the classroom.

As it turned out, the gunfire that shattered the silence of a normal day of classes at Lone Star College’s north Harris County location was sadly routine.

Two young men became involved in an argument that ended when one pulled a handgun. Minutes later, the other man and a school maintenance worker lay wounded while panicked students dove for cover amid fears of an unfolding homicidal spree.

Those fears quickly faded, but not before scores of police cars and emergency vehicles converged on the school in the 2700 block of W. W. Thorne shortly after noon. While paramedics tended the wounded, as well as a female student who needed attention for a medical event possibly related to the shooting, authorities began to search wooded areas adjacent to the campus looking for the gunman, who had run away.

Cars driving along neighboring streets were stopped and inspected in case the gunman was hiding inside, and dog teams scoured surrounding neighborhoods in a yard-to-yard search. Meanwhile, four nearby schools in the Aldine Independent School District were placed on lockdown as a precaution.
(Read more of the story at Chron.com)

RELATED COVERAGE:

LOCAL AREA HEADLINES:

STATE, NATION & WORLD: