Two students seriously wounded in shooting at high school on Manhattan's West Side

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Posted 3:25PM on Tuesday, January 15, 2002

NEW YORK - Two students were seriously wounded Tuesday in a shooting in a high school. The shooting happened a few minutes before 2 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. High, a public high school on Manhattan's Upper West Side near Lincoln Center. "We were in school and we heard two gunshots," said Romain Morrison, 17, a senior at the high school. She said she initially thought she had heard slamming doors. "They were telling everyone to get out of the hallways." The two injured boys were transported to St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan. Bill McCann, a spokesman for the hospital, said both victims were in serious condition and were being evaluated in the emergency department. "We've got two 16-year-olds. One was shot in the upper left part of his back. The other one was shot in the upper left buttocks," he said. McCann said he could not release the students' names because of their ages. The school was locked down, with students kept in their classrooms, as police swept the building for any suspects, police said. The school is on Amsterdam Avenue about two blocks from Lincoln Center. The Board of Education did not immediately return a call for comment. Morrison said after the shooting, many students "just figured out for themselves" and left the building. Police kept onlookers across the street from the school.