CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ A conflict related to bullying escalated to a fatal shooting at Butler High School in Matthews on Monday, leaving one student dead and another charged with his killing, authorities said.
Authorities have now identified the suspect and victim. Victim Bobby McKeithen, 16, was a sophomore at the school campus, Matthews Police Capt. Stason Tyrrell said.
The suspect is a ninth-grader at Butler, Tyrrell said. Jatwan Craig Cuffie, 16, has been charged with first-degree murder, according to Tyrrell and jail records.
McKeithen was taken to Carolinas Medical Center, police said, where he died. The shooting appeared to be an isolated incident caused by conflict between two students, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said.
Wilcox said the conflict was related to "bullying." Asked who was bullying whom, Tyrrell refused to answer.
The shooting occurred in a hallway early Monday and there were many "young people who witnessed this tragedy," Wilcox said.
The shooting occurred around 7:15 a.m., when classes started. A school resource officer was nearby, and officials were able to render aid to the injured student and radio for help within the first minute of the shooting, Tyrrell said.
Cuffie's arrest was quick and peaceful, Tyrrell said. He said a Butler teacher inside the school contacted law enforcement within 10 minutes of the shooting, saying that she was with a student who said he was the shooter. Officers were able to get to her and make the arrest soon after, he said.
Wilcox said school officials were not sure how the suspect was able to get a gun into the school, but noted that not all bags brought onto campus are "actively" searched by the staff.
"We've worked really hard on school security the last six or seven months," Wilcox said. "We are going to review all our procedures, we are going to review our security plans and perhaps will do things that are a little more aggressive."
Wilcox said students were kept in classes after the shooting for safety reasons and to keep the situation organized.
Earlier in the day, Wilcox said the district may discover that it "didn't intervene quickly enough in a bullying situation."
Butler will not have classes Tuesday to give students and teachers a chance to process what happened, Wilcox said Monday afternoon. Wednesday is a scheduled teacher workday, Wilcox said, and staff will be able to come to Butler if they want.
CMS officials posted on Facebook that counseling is being made available for students and staff at the school. "The Butler High School community and CMS appreciate the support of the entire community during this difficult time," said the post.
Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement that he had been in touch with local officials and offered state support. "As we get more information it is critical that we come together to do everything in our power to prevent these incidents from happening and keep guns out of our schools," Cooper stated.
About 2,100 students attend the school, according to its website.
The school is located just outside Charlotte on Matthews-Mint Hill Road. Parents were alerted to the incident via a robocall issued by CMS. WSOC-TV reported live that angry parents were gathering around the campus, despite being told they were to wait for updates at nearby Elevation Church on East Independence Boulevard.
On the periphery of the school, a steady and somber stream of students made their way off campus. Some were accompanied by their parents. Some were not.
Several of the departing students said they learned about the incident from Instagram.
Ryan Kenyon, a junior, said when the school went into lockdown, students were told to go to the nearest classroom and to be quiet. Ryan said they stayed there for 90 minutes, the first block of classes of the day. Students were allowed to go to their normally scheduled second class, he said.
Gabby Kaminsky, a 10th-grader, said she was walking to class in a separate building when she heard multiple shots, but couldn't tell where they were coming from.
"My teacher made us put desks in front of the door and shut the lights, and they were saying: 'This is not a drill' ... so everyone in my classroom was really scared," she said.
"I had texted my mom. A lot of people were on their phones, and the teachers wouldn't let anybody leave, so kids were scared."
Parent Scott Simpson questioned CMS' decision to go back to a normal schedule so soon after the shooting. "They're changing classes during an active crime scene," he said.
Monday was supposed to be a midterm test day, but the exams were canceled, students said. Parents expressed frustration on not getting information from CMS.
Brenda Kenyon, Ryan's mother, said police at the scene told parents to gather at nearby Elevation Church. Then they were allowed through the police line and told to go to the school.
Students said hundreds of concerned and shouting parents massed in front of the building, demanding that their children be allowed to leave.
"Parents, like, stormed the building," sophomore James Kelly said.
Simpson came to get his ninth-grade son, Brody. Rather than come out a main exit, "We made him sneak out a back door. He didn't feel safe," the father said.
Brody's big sister, Bella, now an 11th-grader at the Commonwealth High charter, said today's event corroborates her decision to leave Butler. "I left because of the bullying and fights," she says.
There were 47 violent deaths at schools nationwide from mid 2014 to mid 2015, the most recent years of available data.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the deaths included 28 homicides, 17 suicides and two by law enforcement officers who were attempting to make an arrest, suppress a disturbance or maintain order.
A database created by The Washington Post reports 17 school shootings from Jan. 1, 2018, to March 25, 2018 _ the last entry in the database.
Thirty-one people were killed in those shootings, including 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and 10 at Santa Fe High School in Texas.
One of the 31 victims was the result of a suicide. Five people were killed in school shootings in 2017 and two in 2016 nationwide, according to Post data.
Charlotte schools have witnessed two other shootings since 2003, Post data
