This is the 20th school shooting in the US this year
On Friday, students from across the US participated in the second National Walkout Day, a protest organised in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas School shooting in Florida back in February.
The gunman, a former student of Stoneman Douglas, was arrested “without incident” after killing 17 people during his attack on the school and injuring many more.
Friday morning’s protest, organised by students across the US in an attempt to raise awareness on laws surrounding gun violence, was met with tragic circumstances as one of the young protestors was shot prior to the rally.
The injured teenager, who was a student at a different Florida high school, was shot in the ankle and rushed to the hospital, CNN reports.
The shooting occurred at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida, shortly before the planned protests were set to start.
I’m at First Baptist Church in Ocala, where parents are picking their kids up after the Forest High incident this morning. Heavy police presence and frustrated parents @WUFTNews pic.twitter.com/5MAjhkbGEv
— Grayson Jarvis (@JarvisWeather) April 20, 2018
The 17-year-old who was shot is reportedly not suffering from any life-threatening injuries, though Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods did say in a press conference that the shooting was “intentional.”
The 19-year-old suspect, who is not a student at the school, currently remains in custody.
Back in February, 17 people were killed in total after a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Since then, a number of the student survivors have gone on to become outspoken gun-control activists, organising the nationwide March for Our Lives event as well as monthly school walkouts.
During the first walkout which was held back in March, exactly one month after the Parkland shooting, Morgan Roof – the younger sister of Dylann Roof, who murdered nine people at a Charleston church in 2015 – was arrested after bringing weapons and guns to her high school in South Carolina.
