A gunman is on the loose on Tuesday after opening fire at a student outside the entrance to King City High School in Monterey County, according to school district officials.
Students and school administrators heard the gunshots around 11 a.m. and the campus was locked down, South Monterey County Joint Union High School District Superintendent Daniel Moirao told NBC-affiliate KSBW.
Police swarmed the campus after the student was shot on Mildred Avenue at Broadway Street, an estimated 30 yards away from the school, officials said.
"They did an intensive sweep in our classrooms, and determined the shooter was nowhere to be found on campus," Moirao told KSBW.
A school security guard reportedly spotted the gunman and an accomplice running across the stadium and baseball field. The pair then leaped over a fence and escaped through a cemetery.
Police found five bullet shell casings, KSBW said, and said the shooter is not a student, but a man in his late 20s.
As of 1:40 p.m., the California Highway Patrol, King City police officers, sheriff's deputies, and Greenfield police officers are still searching for the gunman, KSBW reported.
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Officials said that the student was taken to Mee Memorial Hospital. The extent of his injuries are unknown, but officials say he will survive.
A student, who asked to remain anonymous, told KSBW that she was taking a state standardized test when the shots rang out. At first, it sounded as though “someone was hammering on the wall,” she said. Other students too thought the noise came from construction work.
But the teenagers checked Snapchat, KSBW reported, and panicked when they realized it was in fact a shooting.
