Gun drawn at East High School, many involved in fight

Jacob Linton

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) – East High School was locked down Tuesday afternoon after a massive fight broke out and a gun was drawn.

RPD responded to multiple calls at approximately 3:05 p.m. indicating that a fight broke out with many people at East High School located at 1801 East Main Street.

Police say that a fight among several parties ensued on the front lawn of the school which then led to a male pulling a gun and hitting a student with it. The suspect with the gun fled the scene in a vehicle and was not inside the school. The gun was not fired. The school went into lockdown immediately.

East High School Superintendent Dr. Shaun Nelms said that a number of families showed up at the scene when school was let out and started to fight with students. It was at that point that a man pulled out a gun. The man was not a student of East High School.

Nelms says that they need to find a way to keep fights like this to stop happening on school property.

“The bigger threat is that we continue to see community issues present themselves in school settings and it’s just something we don’t control within the school, something we have to respond to, and our school principals, and security officers are not trained to handle gun violence in the community so we have to do something different something more to ensure the community is behaving appropriately but also to keep the school safe for kids coming here to learn and do what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Nelms.

Captain Steven Swetmean said that "This is never a call we want to hear come over the radio as we are all on high alert for any sort of school incident involving a weapon. We are thankful the situation did not escalate further."

This is an ongoing investigation. If anyone has any information on who had the gun they are asked to please call 911 immediately.