Teen arrested in Indiana school shooting

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. -- A 15-year-old boy who was expelled this week opened fire at his central Indiana middle school before classes began Friday, shooting another teen student in the stomach, police said. The shooting sparked an hours-long school lockdown as hundreds of panicked parents awaited word on their children.

State Police Sgt. Curt Durnil said the victim, Chance Jackson, 15, was in critical but stable condition at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, about 30 miles north, where he was taken by helicopter after the shooting at Martinsville West Middle School just after 7 a.m.

Police arrested the former student suspected in the attack about an hour after the shooting and were questioning him at the county jail, Durnil said. Morgan County prosecutors were reviewing possible charges, he said.

Police refused to speculate on a possible motive in the shooting. Durnil said the teen in custody had been suspended then expelled from the school this week and was not supposed to be on campus. He said he did not know why the student was expelled.

"We have no motive at all at this point. We're talking to witnesses and schools officials to get to the bottom of it," he said.

Durnil declined to address reports that the shooting may have stemmed from a dispute that started at a school dance last weekend.

"We're still looking at all angles, to be sure," Durnil said.

Classmates told The Associated Press that Jackson and the shooting suspect had a volatile relationship and had argued before.

Morgan Lanfair, an 18-year-old student at a local high school, said she and the suspect have been friends for two years. She said he has been in trouble at school before but that she didn't think he "would go through with something like this."