Emergency crews responding to a shooting at Townville Elementary shooting. Image courtesy WYFF News 4.
A teenage suspect is in custody following a shooting that injured a teacher and two students at Townville Elementary School in South Carolina, authorities confirmed.
According to WYFF News 4, the young students were airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital while the female teacher was transported via ambulance to AnMed Health Medical Center. All suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Shiela Cole said the shooting occurred just after 1 p.m. this afternoon as armed officers and other emergency response personnel raced to the school. The building was promptly evacuated as students were transported by bus to nearby Oakdale Baptist Church.
Greenville Online reports that the shooting may have a direct connection to a dead man who was found near Osbourne Road, located a little more than three miles from the elementary school. Investigators haven’t shared much information regarding the gruesome discovery, but are expected to hold a press conference at Emergency Operation Center in Anderson later today, according to the news site.
“I just pray for those families. I pray for those kids,” a student’s mother told WYFF News 4. “I thank God it wasn’t mine, but I feel so bad for them and I’m just going to pray that they’re OK and I don’t know if they’re my daughter’s classmates or they’re somebody I knew. I don’t know. Just feel so bad.”
