Multiple people including a police officer were shot Monday at a high school in the east Tennessee city of Knoxville, authorities said, adding that the scene had been secured. The Knoxville Police Department tweeted that authorities were at the site of the shooting at Austin-East Magnet High School. The online posting said a Knoxville Police Department officer was reported among the victims. Bob Thomas, the superintendent of Knox County Schools, tweeted later Monday that a shooting had occurred but the building had been secured. “The school building has been secured and students who were not involved in the incident have been released to their families,” Thomas said. He added in a separate tweet that authorities were gathering information and about “this tragic situation” and that additional information would be provided later. Police respond to a shooting at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, April 12, 2021. (Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel/USA Today Network via Reuters)Police urged people to avoid the area, adding a reunification site had been set up on a baseball field behind the school for students to be reunited with family. Details about the shooting remained sketchy and news outlets showed numerous police and emergency vehicles at the scene. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said agents have gone to the school. The bureau, which is the state’s top crime-fighting agency, didn’t elaborate but said it would provide more information later. Last week, Republican Governor Bill Lee signed off on legislation that would make Tennessee the latest state to soon allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns, openly or concealed, without first clearing a background check and training. Lee backed the legislation over objections from law enforcement groups, who argued that the state’s existing permit system provided an important safeguard for knowing who should or shouldn’t be carrying a gun. The law, which does not apply to long guns, will take effect July 1. The new measure also increases certain penalties. For example, theft of a firearm — now a misdemeanor that carries a 30-day sentence — will become a felony with a mandatory six month incarceration. It also makes exceptions for people with certain mental illnesses and criminal convictions. When asked earlier this year whether other recent mass shootings in Georgia, Colorado and others gave him any concern about timing, Lee said the increased penalties mean that “we in fact will be strengthening laws that would help prevent gun crimes in the future.”
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