NORCO, Calif. -- A dozen high school students were slightly wounded trying to wrestle a shotgun from a classmate who arrived on campus to settle a dispute, officials said.
Riverside County Sheriff's deputies said the shotgun was fired once in the air about 10 a.m. Friday by a 17-year-old junior at Norco High School before the other students tackled him.
The youth, who was not identified because of his age, was taken into custody by the sheriff's deputies. No charges were immediately filed.
Nine of the 12 students were injured by ricocheting shotgun pellets and were taken to Riverside General Hospital and Circle City Hospital in Corona. Two others had their hands burned when they grabbed the hot barrel of the gun and one was bitten by the gunman.
Hospital officials said all of the victims were released in good condition after treatment.
Principal David Long said the youth was a recent transfer from a California Youth Authority facility and apparently had been physically mistreating a female student Thursday when one of the school's athletes intervened.
'The boy with the gun apparently had had a confrontation with a girl, when another male saw the boy hit her and interceded,' said Long.
That struggle apparently led to a dare by the CYA enrollee to settle the dispute off campus but the fight never materialized, Long said.
Witnesses and sheriff deputies said the assailant returned to the campus Friday morning carrying a shotgun loaded with bird rounds.
Long said the student yelled to his classmates he had a loaded gun and fired one shot into the air.
'He was in an area of lockers and when the students jumped to take the gun, the gun went off again into the overhead ceiling and ricocheted,' Long said.
