Wootton High School shooting suspect charged with attempted murder

A 16-year-old boy faces attempted murder, assault and weapons charges in a shooting that injured another teen on Monday at a Rockville, Maryland, high school, police say.

Kahlil White-Villatoro, 16, was charged as an adult with attempted second-degree murder and numerous other charges after the shooting inside Wootton High School, the Rockville City Police Department said in a release Tuesday morning.

The injured student, another 16-year-old boy, was shot in a school hallway, spurring an hourslong lockdown as a SWAT team and seven K9s combed the school to search for more possible victims.

White-Vallatoro was arrested near the school shortly after the shooting, Montgomery County police said.

Police said the two teenagers were fighting before the gunfire went off.

Detectives later recovered a a Polymer80 9 mm handgun they believe White-Villatoro used in the shooting, police said.

After a student was shot and another was arrested at Wootton High School, here’s what authorities said they know so far. News4’s Joseph Olmo reports.

White-Villatoro is in jail awaiting a bond hearing.

Students return to Wootton High School

Less than 24 hours after the shooting, students returned to the school.

Extra security at the school was visible as buses dropped students off Tuesday morning. Several police cruisers were also parked in front.

Some students who spoke to News4 Tuesday morning described the tense and confusing moments after the shooting.

“We didn’t know at first whether it was a targeted shooting or, like, a mass shooting. So everyone was afraid at first, and especially when the announcements came in, we could hear, like, the panicked voice of the announcer and we all realized that this wasn’t a joke. This was like actually serious,” Wrik Datta, a senior at Wootton, said.

The News4 I-Team has reported in depth on school shootings in the U.S. Investigative Reporter Ted Oberg discusses the shooting at Wootton High School.

“They just told us to, that we were on lockdown. So no instruction, no nothing. I know it’s common that a lot of classrooms got in, like, the corner, you know, and just sat there for probably like an hour or so or even more,” sophomore Milan Palathra said.

Palathra said he did not agree with school officials’ decision to reopen on Tuesday.

“I think it’s disappointing because yesterday there was … like a fear that, like, nobody should really ever experience. And I don’t think it’s proper that we just come straight back after that,” he said.

“My son texted me from the classroom barricaded in, thinking that was going to be the last text he gave to me. So, there’s a lot of emotion going on today. There’s a lot of trauma,” said Adam Van Grack, a member of the Rockville City Council.

Van Grack said it was necessary for the school to reopen Tuesday so students could have access to counseling resources.

“The school has resources, has counselors available so … the children need to be able to avail themselves of that capacity. And there needs to be a place to go because some people don’t have a place. So school should absolutely be open,” he said.