Mesquite school shooting: Police release video, 911 calls of confrontation with student

MESQUITE, Texas - Mesquite police released portions of body camera video and 911 calls from the shooting at a Mesquite charter school earlier this month.

On Feb. 19 at 8:49 a.m., police were called to Pioneer Technology and Art Academy, a charter school in Mesquite, after an administrator said a 16-year-old student brought a gun to school.

She calmly explained the student was in her office with a gun in his hands, refusing to put it down.

"A student just pulled a gun. I need someone here now," the school's assistant principal is heard saying in a 911 call. "I'm putting the building on lockdown."

Administrators can be heard telling the student to put down the gun in the 911 calls.

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Officers arrived on the scene within two minutes, according to police, and were told that the student, who has not been named due to his age, was in the office sitting on a couch with a handgun at his feet.

"It's on the floor between his legs," a woman is heard saying in the body camera video.

A total of three officers arrived at the scene.

Mesquite PD edited the video before its release, but the department says the officers spoke to the student for about four minutes while trying to deescalate the situation.

"What's going on today, buddy? Can you talk to us? We would like to help you. That's why we are here," an officer is heard saying. "Please, do not reach for that gun. We don't want anything to happen to you or anyone else."

That's when, according to Mesquite Police, the student reached quickly for the handgun on the floor. 

One officer fires at the suspect.

"We just need you to step away," the officer says before firing.

The office door begins to close.

The officer grabs the handle, pulling it open to maintain a visual inside the room.

Video shows the student now standing. Police say he's facing the officers with the handgun raised toward them in a shooter's stance. The video then shows three Mesquite officers opening fire.

Police fired 19 shots, hitting the student in the leg. The student did not fire a shot.

Police say the suspect stayed inside the office, before agreeing to come out. He was then taken into custody.

A Rossi .38 Special revolver was found by investigators.

The 16-year-old was taken to the hospital for treatment and released later that day.

No one else was injured in the shooting.

"Responding units obviously understood the the type of danger that they were facing at the time that they showed up," said Alex del Carmen, a criminologist who watched the body camera and school security video.

He says the officers appeared to follow their training, first talking calmly to the gunman.

"We just want you to put the gun down and keep it down and walk to us and talk to us. It's also very much a deescalating type of situation," said del Carmen.

The officers then fired at the suspect when that didn't work.

"There's clearly going to be violence at that point. They know that there's a lethal threat against the individual and others around them and also against the officers, so they have to engage in lethal force," del Carmen said.

The 16-year-old was charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault against a public servant and exhibition of a firearm.

"Subsequent interviews with witness revealed that the suspect came to the school with intentions of harming others," said Lt. Brandon Ricketts, from the Mesquite Police Department.

The identities of the officers are not being released.

Mesquite police say the officers were a five-year veteran, an eight-year veteran and a recent transfer who came from another agency.

The investigation into the incident is underway. It will then be turned over to the Dallas County District Attorney's Office for review.

An internal affairs review will also determine if the officers were justified in their use of deadly force.