Reports of Multiple People Shot at College Near Houston - kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen

HOUSTON, TEXAS (KPRC) -- Two persons of interest and a maintenance man were shot during a dispute at a north Harris County college Tuesday, investigators said.

Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constables said the shooting happened at Lone Star College's North Harris campus, 2700 West W. W. Thorne Drive near Aldine Westfield, around 12:30 p.m.

"We found that the incident was not an active shooter incident but was an altercation between two individuals. One of the individuals did have a student identification. During the altercation, there was a maintenance man that was injured and shot due to crossfire. Another individual at the scene was transported (to) the hospital for a medical reason. She had a medical condition," said Major Armonda Tello with the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

The maintenance man, described as in his mid-50s, was shot in the leg. He was hospitalized in stable condition. His name was not released.

The campus was cleared and deemed safe by 3:30 p.m. 

Dr. Richard Carpenter of Lone Star College said campus police heard some of the shots being fired and responded immediately.

Ben Taub Hospital said it received two shooting victims. The extent of those injuries was not released. Reginald Neal said his nephew, Jody Neal, 24, was one of the wounded taken to Ben Taub.

"All I know he got shot three times. That's all I know," Reginald Neal said. "He got shot in one of his arms, in the stomach and the leg."

"He was sitting in the study room. There (were) three people on the computer and a guy walked up the stairs and opened fire on him," said Stacy Neal, Jody's sister. "They said it was just one guy that came in with a gun."

A fourth person was transported from the scene. Officials said a woman suffered a medical condition and was not shot.

According to a tweet sent out by Lone Star College about 2 p.m., the shooting was a dispute between two individuals. The nature of the dispute has not been released.

"I was waiting for my English class to start. It was five minutes before class and all of a sudden, I heard shots fired and people started rushing in the hallway. A few students even came in to our room seeking shelter and we closed the door and we pushed the table against the door and we were hiding," student Amanda Vasquez said. "You never think this is going to happen to you."

Vasquez said the shots seem to be fired in her classroom's hallway. 

"They sounded very close -- the shots. (We heard) five or six gunshots," Vasquez said. "I just ducked under the table as fast as I could and hoped for the best. I saw one of the shooters when he was already under police control."

"I was doing my homework on the second floor and all you heard were six or seven loud gunshots. (Students) were just running away from the hallway. That's the same thing that I did. People didn't want to cross the hallway because it's open and we didn't know where the shooter was," student Daniel Flores said. "I went to the courtyard and there were people walking around like they didn't know. It wasn't organized."

A shelter-in-place was ordered at the college, but the campus was evacuated a short time later. The campus was closed to the public for the rest of the day. Officials said the campus would reopen on Wednesday.

Several students said they were not notified about the shooting,

Ariana Munoz, 19, said she was in Algebra class when a friend texted her about 12:30 p.m. to see if she was OK. Munoz said she and the other 25 students in her class didn't receive an alert.

"Come to find out the shooting wasn't far from me, so I alerted my other class members and I told my professor, who then went and told other professors," Munoz said. "Why is it that nobody from the school came and told us? Why was it that I had to alert the faculty? Why was it that I had to tell everybody?"

Munoz said the professor went about class as if nothing had happened. About 1:10 p.m., roughly 40 minutes after the shooting, Munoz said a police officer knocked on her classroom door and told everyone to evacuate. She said the college did send out an email alert eventually, but she said it was sent after she left campus.

Carpenter said messages were sent out.

"We sent out a text blast to all of our students, emails," Carpenter said. "We have multiple forms by which we communicate with students."

Carpenter said students are able to opt-out of those alerts, but the system is designed to send notifications to every student.

A message was posted on Facebook about 1 p.m. The first posting the college made on its main Twitter account was about 2 p.m. A notice did not appear to have been posted on the North Harris campus' Twitter page at all.

A YMCA day care on the college campus was placed on lockdown. All of the children there were safe.

Aldine Independent School District officials said four nearby campuses, Dunn Elementary, Parker Intermediate, Nimitz 9th grade campus and Nimitz High, were placed on lockdown as a precaution. The lockdown was lifted about 3 p.m.

There were more than 10,000 students on the campus at the time of the shooting, said Jed Young, a school spokesman. Lone Star College's North Harris campus sits on 200 acres and opened in 1973. It offers more than 80 programs of study.

According to college officials, administrators have been actively talking about how they should deal with a shooter on campus. On Tuesday morning, the college president sent faculty members a link to a video that demonstrates what to do in an active shooter situation.