A student from Westside High School was shot Wednesday morning while walking to his bus stop. A school bus driver rushed him to a nearby fire station, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
Our News4Jax partner reports Lt. Will Janes said a black vehicle approached the boy as he was walking on Lane Avenue toward his bus stop around 6:15 a.m. and someone inside opened fire. The student was hit one time, but was able to get to the bus stop and was loaded onto the bus, Janes said.
“The bus driver made a split-second decision to transport him to the fire station you see behind me,” Janes said. “It was likely very important (that the driver did that). The immediate medical care that he got very likely saved his life.”
Janes said the boy was taken to a hospital with critical injuries.
Duval County School Board member Scott Shine said the boy was shot in the chest.
Police did not have any description of the shooter.
Some of the other students on the bus witnessed the shooting, Shine said, and they were being questioned by police.
"We know this is wrong, and we have a big problem in Jacksonville," Shine said. "We have an out-of-control gun violence situation in the city. More has got to be done."
He said two students did not cooperate with officers' questions and tried to take an officer's taser. One of those students was tased and taken to Baptist Hospital as a precaution, Shine said. Both of those students will be arrested, officials said.
Shine said crisis counselors will be at Westside High School to help students cope with the violence.
City Councilman Terrance Freeman said his heart goes out to the family of the injured student and the students on the bus.
"Once again we have kids in our community that are experiencing these tragic events and are having to process it and try to deal with it on their own," Freeman said. "I’ve heard they have teams here that’s going to help with them. And I continue to pray for them and pray for our city as a whole."
Westside High School Principal Rebecca Raulerson went to the fire station where the other students were being questioned Wednesday morning. Most of the 21 students on the bus attend Westside High, one goes to Bridge to Success and another to Frank H. Peterson Academies.
"This is another episode of violence in Jacksonville that we would hope did not happen, but did happen," Shine said. "It looks like we have a hero in the form of a school bus driver who took the injured individual to the fire station as quickly as possible."
A witness who saw the aftermath at the fire station said he's tired of the violence involving children.
"Parents, you are killing your children," Roderick Dorsey said. "You can't let your children do what they want to do because the streets are going to do something to them."
A Westside High School parent echoed that sentiment.
"It's broad daylight, kids coming to school to learn and for this stuff, it's unacceptable," Winston LaBranch said. "Kids lives are in danger. It's ridiculous. We're living in a time now where people just want to hurt each other instead of resolving things and just resort to violence. It's just got to stop."
