BREAKING NEWS

5 injured as gunfire erupts at Cleveland high school.

CLEVELAND — A gunman opened fire in a downtown high school on Wednesday, and five people were taken to a hospital, the mayor said.
Mayor Frank Jackson said three young people and two adults were hurt. SuccessTech Academy had been secured and there was only one suspect, he said.

"They have the shooter," Jackson said. He did not elaborate.

Cleveland television station WKYC reported the shooter was a 14-year-old freshman at the school who had been suspended after a fight. There were conflicting reports Wednesday afternoon about whether the shooter was dead.

Jackson said the victims were a 42-year-old male; a 57-year-old male; a 17-year-old male; a 14-year-old male and a 14-year-old female. All the males were shot; the female hurt her knee during the shooting, he said.

All were brought to a local hospital for treatment, Jackson said. He said the teens were in stable condition and the adults were in "slightly elevated" — or slightly worse than stable — condition.

Ronnell Jackson, 15, said he saw the shooter running down a school hallway.

"He was about to shoot me but I got out just in time," he said.

Another student, Doneisha LeVert, said she heard the principal say "Code Blue" over the public address system, and the students started running. She said she hid in a closet with some of her friends.

Students stood outside the building, many in tears and on cellphones. Family members also stood outside, anxiously waiting for their children to be released.

"I'm scared. I'm hoping no more people got hurt," Jackson said.

Tammy Mundy, 38, who has a son and daughter at the school, told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland that her daughter called when the shooting started.

"She said, 'Mom they're shooting in here, kids are running out, I'm hiding in the closet,"' Mundy told the newspaper.

Then she called her 18-year-old son, Darnell Rodgers, on his cellphone, and he told her he had been shot in the arm.

"He said, 'Mom I got shot,"' Mundy told the newspaper.

The small, alternative high school is in the center of downtown across from the FBI's offices and three blocks from where the Cleveland Browns play football. The school enrolls 240 students grades nine through 12 and emphasizes technology education. All the students are poor under federal poverty guidelines.

"Schools are supposed to be a safe place," Cleveland Teachers Union President JoAnne DeMarco said. "Success Tech would have been the last place that I expected this."

Contributing: Associated Press; WKYC-TV in Cleveland; Randy Lilleston in McLean, Va.