High school student shot while walking to school Tuesday morning

A high school student was shot while walking to high school in the Graham area Tuesday morning, school officials with the Bethel School District confirmed.

The Graham-Kapowsin High School student, 16, was shot near the corner of 186th Street and 82nd Avenue just before 7 a.m. He was treated at the scene by first responders and subsequently taken to a nearby hospital with a leg injury considered to be non-life-threatening.

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“Our thoughts are with the student and their family,” the school district wrote in its alert for students and families. “Counselors and social workers will be available at GKHS today for students who need support. We are working closely with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, and we thank them for their quick response to this incident.”

Details about the shooting remain unclear, but deputies were told that the shooter was in a vehicle and fled the area.

“He (the injured student) had told us that it was when he was walking to school with a friend, a car had pulled up and shot at him and then took off,” Pierce County Public Information Officer Sergeant Darren Moss Jr. told KIRO Newsradio. “Deputies were unable to locate any suspects today or find the vehicle that was used. We did have forensics and investigators go out to the scene and enter the hospital to talk to the victim as well.”

Moss said if anyone has any information regarding this shooting, they should call the sheriff’s department or give an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers.

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According to Moss, the victim of the shooting was not near the high school, but in one of the “furthest neighborhoods away” from the campus he was heading to.

“Right now, we don’t believe this to be a random incident that he was specifically targeted for some reason,” Moss added. “We’re going to try to figure out who it is that did this because we want everybody to feel safe, and we want people to feel safe sending their kids off to school.”

This is a developing story, check back for updates

Contributing: Heather Bosch, KIRO Newsradio

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.