California High School Student Opens Fire In Class, Critically Injuring 1 Classmate [VIDEO]

Another U.S. school became a crime scene Thursday morning when a 16-year-old student opened fire during his first period class and critically wounded a classmate with a 12-gauge shotgun, reports CNN.com.

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The gunman aimed specifically at the critically injured student, and one more classmate, but missed in that instance, according to authorities.

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Two girls were also injured. One sustained hearing damage from the standing close to the gun blast. And another attained injuries in her attempt to flee.

Bullying is suspected to be the motive, according to authorities, but that has not been confirmed.

“There was some conversation about bullying, but we have not confirmed that that is an issue at this point,” Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told reporters in trying to explain the motivation of Thursday’s school shooting in Taft, about 30 miles west of Bakersfield, California.

Read more from CNN below:

The gunman was in custody Thursday after he was talked into dropping the firearm by his teacher and another school staff member, said authorities, who weren’t releasing names of the gunman or the school personnel.

As the shooting unfolded, the teacher in the classroom evacuated his students out of a back door. Then, instead of running for his own life, he engaged the student gunman in a conversation, authorities said.