RANDALLSTOWN, Md. (AP) – Four students were wounded Friday in a drive-by shooting at a high school outside Baltimore, authorities said.

The victims were students who stayed after school to attend a charity basketball game. Three of them suffered non-life-threatening injuries, while the fourth was in surgery, Baltimore County Police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan said.

The motivation for the attack was not immediately known, but Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. told WBAL-TV that it was a “street crime that happened on school grounds.”

Witnesses told police a car with about four people inside pulled up to Randallstown High School at about 4:30 p.m., and the driver and a passenger got out of the car, police spokesman Bill Toohey said. The driver shot four or five times, then handed the gun to the passenger, who also fired. The car – a black BMW with tinted windows – then sped off.

An officer looking for the car was told by witnesses that three people had fled from a black BMW, Sheridan said. The officer captured one of them.

The shooting occurred after the basketball game, which was organized by a state lawmaker and attended by about 300 students. Toohey said the lawmaker did not appear to be the target of the shooting.

“It’s a shame that a random act of violence by people gives the school a bad image,” said Delegate Robert Zirkin, who organized the event raise money for scholarships.

A security camera was pointed at the area of the shooting, but it was not working, Toohey said.

Anxious parents waited outside the school, blocked from entering by police tape. Deborah Lee of Randallstown said she was waiting for her daughter, Sarah, to finish talking with investigators.

She said the 16-year-old junior had attended the game, then called to tell her mom the game was over and it was time to pick her up. Shortly afterward, Sarah called back to say people had been shot.

A woman who answered the telephone at the school’s main office said school officials could not comment because “clearly, they are trying to contact families.” She would not identify herself or her position.

Randallstown High School is located in northwest Baltimore County, about 10 miles from Baltimore.

It has 1,700 students and a staff of 115, according to the Baltimore County public schools Web site.

The school is across the street from a suburban development of homes with two-car garages and nice lawns. It is about a mile off an old country road that has become a busy commuter thoroughfare linking residential developments with the city of Baltimore.

Copy the Story Link