Student Critically Hurt After Shooting Himself

SAN BERNARDINO — In yet another campus shooting, a Rialto High School freshman put a gun to his head and shot himself as other students were arriving for Friday morning classes.

The boy, a 15-year-old freshman who had transferred to the school in January, was listed in critical condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

A San Bernardino Police Department spokesman said the youth is not expected to survive.

Apparently very few students--perhaps only one--actually saw the shooting, but the single crack from the .38-caliber revolver startled students, some of whom ducked for cover and some of whom ran for safety.

The shooting occurred shortly after 7 a.m. in the center of the campus where about 2,700 students attend classes. No one had noticed the handgun tucked into the waist of the boy’s pants until he pulled it out, said San Bernardino Police Lt. W.D. Smith.

One student, Bobby Acevedo, 15, said he had come out of a bathroom and was walking toward the boy, who was a few feet away, when he noticed the gun.

“I saw a tear on his cheek. He pulled the gun out, put it to his head, held it there a little bit and then just shot himself,” Acevedo said. “I ducked. Some kids started screaming.”

The youth collapsed as some of the campus’ eight security officers ran to the scene. Students were quickly shepherded to their first-period classes, but some left campus.

Smith said police were interviewing the boy’s mother and others to try to determine why he shot himself.

The gun, Smith said, had come from the family home. There are no metal detectors at the school.

In another incident Friday, a 17-year-old Hawthorne High School student who brought a gun to campus Friday was tackled by a security officer and later arrested by police, authorities said.

The weapon was not loaded, but the boy was carrying bullets, police said. A classmate of the student’s reported that he was carrying the weapon.

Police said the senior had the .38-caliber handgun in the pocket of a green army jacket when school officials confronted him during a third-period math class. Lt. James McInerny said the student’s name was being withheld because he is a minor.

It was not immediately clear where the boy obtained the weapon, McInerny said.

Times special correspondent Tracy Johnson contributed to this story.