10 kids shot with pellet or BB gun on elementary school playground

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Police are actively searching for the person who shot a BB or pellet gun at elementary school students Thursday afternoon in DeKalb County.

The shooting happened around 1 p.m. at Wynbrooke Elementary School.

DeKalb County Schools confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that 10 kids were hit when someone in a wooded area started shooting at the playground.

Nine of the 10 students were taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston to be checked. All had non-life threatening injuries, according to the district.

[PHOTOS: At least 10 kids hit with pellet or BB gun at elementary school]

NewsChopper 2 flew over the scene shortly after we confirmed with sources what was going on.

Video shot by

NewsChopper 2

at the scene showed crime scene tape surrounding the playground where the shooting happened. The video also showed several police cars around the school grounds and officers walking around investigating.

Caleb Edmonson, 11, was inside the school when the scary moments started to unfold. He told Channel 2's Michael Seiden that he was eating lunch in the cafeteria when he started hearing about an active shooter.

"The teacher was asking the janitors to lock the door and then he was trying to close the blinds," Caleb said.

That's when he said everyone started to panic.

"A couple minutes later we saw an ambulance, police officers coming in and running down our hallways," Caleb told Seiden.

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Police continued to interview witnesses throughout the afternoon, but so far, they have not released any information on a possible suspect.

Channel 2's Lori Wilson spoke with a father of one of the students who was shot Thursday afternoon outside the hospital.

Kevin Johnson told Wilson that his son is a first-grader at the school and that he rode with his son in the back of the ambulance to the hospital. He also shared a photo with Wilson of his son sitting on a stretcher.

Johnson said he is just relieved to know his son is going to be OK.

“He's in good hands. I’m glad that the ER was able to pick him up and get him taken care of quickly, because it could have turned into something way worse. It could have been a real gun and these kind of problems have got to stop,” Johnson said.

Wilson confirmed with the hospital that all of the students taken to Egleston were released and reunited with their parents shortly after 2 p.m.

People who live in the neighborhoods around the school are concerned that a shooter still hasn’t been caught.

Barbara Madison lives down the street from Wynbrooke Elementary. She told Channel 2's Rikki Klaus that she heard and saw the chaos on Wynbrooke Parkway on Thursday afternoon.

“I’m real concerned because I thought this area was safe,” Madison said. “My nephew goes there. My daughter’s going there next year.”

She told Klaus that she rushed to the school to get her niece when she heard what was happening.

“I was the closest one that could get to her the quickest,” Madison said. “My heart dropped when I heard about it, yes. And to think that it was at an elementary school, that was really frightening.”

Channel 2 Action News contacted the school district for comment about the shooting. They released a statement saying, in part:

"There was never a threat of anyone getting into the school building and the remaining students were not injured. The health and safety of our students is, and always will be, the number one priority at The DeKalb County School District. DeKalb Police officers are assisting DCSD Police in the investigation. Additional staff and DCSD police will be on-site tomorrow to ensure the safety of our students."

Cox Media Group