Outside the high school, there were tears.
“I felt shock and then I felt mad,” Kalee Barrientos, a sophomore who knew both the victim and shooter, told KHOU 11 News.
The campus shooting stunned parents and students.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” one parent said. “We’re not supposed to bury our kids. We’re not supposed to do that.”
Unanswered campus safety questions angered some, too.
“The fact that they’re just, like, 'Come back to school tomorrow. It’s going to be fine.' This is not acceptable,” parent Jonasu Wagstaff said.
Before the final period of the day, some students said they heard gunfire in a classroom. A parent told KHOU 11 News her son was in a hallway steps away.
“He’s in shock,” she said. “He immediately walked up to the scene and immediately knew that, 'these are my friends,' and I don’t think he understood what he was seeing at first until reality set in.”
Barrientos was on her way to JROTC when she was told something happened between two members of the program, two students she considered friends.
Barrientos said everyone was told to go outside.
“I felt like bursting out in tears because of who did it and who died,” she said.
While Bellaire police searched the area and eventually found the shooter, neighbors showed KHOU 11 News texts from city hall that urged people to stay in their homes until authorities had more information.
Hours later, HISD Superintendent Grenita Lathan expressed sympathy for the victim, his family and friends.
Wagstaff, whose three children go to the school, said her oldest child is terrified because it's not the first time a student has brought a gun on campus. Wagstaff’s daughter wonders how she will be safe.
“I don’t know what to do to help her, especially when I can’t get her principal to answer a question,” Wagstaff said.
In a statement, HISD promised grief and crisis support for students and staff. HISD offers a variety of social and emotional support resources,
click here for more information.
A student was shot to death at Bellaire High School on Jan. 14, 2019.
www.wfaa.com