Police on Wednesday night arrested one suspect in the Thomas Jefferson High School shooting, but another suspect could still be at large.
In an emailed statement to The Dallas Express, a spokesperson for the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) said, “Shooter is in custody [as] of late last night. That is the only information we have available to share.”
At a press conference held on the afternoon of March 22, DISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said three people were involved in the incident.
She stated that two individuals were inside the vehicle from which gunshots were fired at a student who sustained a wound to the arm. She had also said that one of the two people in the car was also a student, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
The DISD Police Department took the lead in the investigation, but it is currently unclear if the agency made the arrest. DISD also would not confirm whether the person in the car who was not arrested is or ever was a suspect.
DISD was not the only North Texas school district to suffer a school shooting this week. On Monday, two students were shot at Lamar High School in Arlington. One of them died of his wounds at an area hospital. The suspect was arrested shortly after the shooting, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
The tragic incidents come as violent crime is on the rise within Dallas city limits. Overall violent crime is up by 4.61% year-to-date as of March 21, according to a report by the Dallas Police Department. Of particular note are the steep increases in aggravated assaults and murders — 9.76% and 21.57%, respectively.
However, Tuesday’s school shooting at Thomas Jefferson High School — which Elizalde attributed to the city’s current problem with violent crime — will likely not factor into the City of Dallas’ crime statistics. Due to a reporting technicality, crimes in Dallas that are primarily investigated by a law enforcement agency other than DPD are excluded from City data, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.