One teenager was killed and two more were critically injured in a drive-by shooting outside an Iowa high school on Monday, the Associated Press reports. Six teens were charged with murder. The police did not seem to know the exact motive for the crime, but Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert said, “Unfortunately what happened here today was just another pointless tragedy in our community. . . . People using firearms to settle their differences.” Police said reports of the shooting began coming in at around 2:50 p.m., just before classes were set to end at East High School. The 15-year-old boy who was killed was not a student at East, but the two critically-injured girls, aged 16 and 18, are students at the school.
The school district cancelled Tuesday classes and postponed the ACT college admissions test and parent-teacher conferences. Superintendent Thomas Ahart lamented the frequency of school shootings and said that “real change to gun laws and access would go a long way to help us.” He added that, “Our staff and students are forced to train for these incidents and the trauma associated with the repeated drills and incidents will remain with them for years to come. It’s unfortunate that our state and our country have become a place where firearms are far too easily accessible.” Among the evidence available to police are shell casings recovered at the scene. It was Des Moines' fourth homicide this year.