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Students React To Perry Hall Shooting

PERRY HALL, Md. (WJZ) -- The first day of school became terrifying for students at Perry Hall High School. One student was shot in the cafeteria Monday morning.

Kai Jackson spoke to students.

The safety of school and the promise of a new year are shattered concepts at Perry Hall High School in Baltimore County. Students describe the chaos that followed after a shooting in the school's cafeteria.

"First gunshot went off and no one knew what it was and then we all turned around and then I just saw him standing there, holding the shotgun," said one student.

"We heard one shot go off. Everybody in the cafeteria went silent and then we heard a second one," said another student.

Students fled the cafeteria immediately after the shooting started but many have vivid memories of what happened inside before they left.

"That's when people were screaming and running and it was just chaos getting out and it was really scary," said a student.

Baltimore County police say a 15-year-old male shot a 17-year-old male student. Witnesses say the suspect looked both determined and detached.

"He just looked angry, like he wanted to do something," a student said.

"He had this eye about him," a student said. "Like he wasn't steady in the head."

While there were hundreds in the cafeteria, most of the students were in classrooms at the time of the shooting. Those students were placed on lockdown and not allowed to leave the classroom. It was hours before they were released and allowed to leave. Officials say the emergency plan they put into place worked.

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