Two shot at Phoenix-area high school

Two 15-year-old girls who were believed to have been romantically involved were found shot dead on Friday at an Arizona high school in an apparent murder-suicide that initially triggered a security lockdown of the campus, police said.

The incident was isolated and the school and neighborhood is safe, according to Glendale Police Department.

Friday started like many others for Independence High School teacher Phuong Kieu.

Glendale Officer Tracey Breeden told reporters that both were 15-year-old girls, each with a single gunshot wound, at Independence High School.

Breeden said the teens had been positively identified, but their names were not being released by police because they were juveniles.

Glendale police say there’s no active shooter and no more danger at Independence High School. It was limited to the two students who were each shot once and found under a covered patio near an administration building and cafeteria.

Cheryl Rice said she went to a store after a friend called about the shooting and asked after Rice’s 15-year-old daughter.

She said it was awful waiting for word about her child.

Parents were bused to the school to be reunited with their children.

The school was placed on lockdown immediately after the shooting that took place in an outdoor area of the school, with panicked parents rushing to the site for word about their kids.

Independence High, which is just a couple miles outside Phoenix, has about 2,000 students, school district representative Sara Clawson said.

“She would always ask questions in class and was very amusing and outgoing”, Arianna said. Other students who got permission from their parents left campus on their own.

Social workers and counselors will be available to students and staff when school resumes Tuesday, the superintendent said.

“I never imagined something like this would happen at my school”, Arianna said.

Concerned parents gathered outside the school, looking for their children, and a section of the street on which the school is located was closed, Phoenix television station KPHO reported.