Four people were injured in a shooting when a student opened fire after a fight in a classroom at Timberview High School in the Mansfield school district on Wednesday morning, police said.

The suspect, an 18-year-old student, has been taken into custody, police said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Timothy Simpkins turned himself in with his attorney about 1:30 p.m. and was being interviewed by detectives. He faces three counts of aggravated assault, police said.

Arlington Assistant Police Chief Kevin Kolbye said that a 15-year-old male student and a 25-year-old man who is a staff member were shot, and a female student was grazed by a bullet. The 15-year-old underwent surgery and he was in the ICU, authorities said. A Medical City Arlington hospital spokesman said the 15-year-old was in critical condition and the other two patients were in good condition.

Multiple sources identified the 25-year-old man who was shot as Calvin Pettitt, an English teacher at the school. A sign on the front door of his home said his family did not wish to speak to the media Wednesday evening.

Another adult, a pregnant woman, fell and suffered minor injuries but declined treatment, Kolbye said.

Simpkins fired shots in a second-floor classroom after being involved in a fight with another student, police said. Video that appears to show the fight has been posted by other students on social media.

Kolbye said the shooting was not “a random act of violence. This is not somebody attacking our schools. We believe this was a student who got into a fight and drew a weapon.”

Kolbye said he has “high confidence” there was only one shooter involved.

Police said they found a .45-caliber handgun on a street in Grand Prairie that they believe was used in the shooting and it will be turned over to the ATF for ballistics testing. The car Simpkins used to flee from the school after the shooting also was found in Grand Prairie, police said.

Officers surrounded Simpkins’ home, in the 600 block of Harris Ridge Drive in Arlington, on Wednesday during the search for the suspect and later searched the house.

A woman acting as spokesperson for the family, Carol Harrison Lafayette, talked to reporters while standing with other relatives outside the home on Wednesday evening. She said Simpkins had been bullied and robbed twice at school.

“This is a situation where Timothy was being bullied,” Harrison Lafayette said. “It had been reported to the principals right along with the teachers. I’m not trying to justify the gun that was brought, but when you’re being bullied, when there’s bullies, throughout this nation you hear of young people ... committing suicide.

“The decision he made, taking the gun, we’re not justifying that,” Harrison Lafayette continued. “That was not right. But he was trying to protect himself. And so we hope that the police department does the investigation properly. There are going to be independent investigations that are going to be done as well so we can get to the bottom of really what happened.”

Asked what the family wanted to say to the people who were injured, she said, “We ask as a family for forgiveness of any type of hurt.”

Timberview High School went on lockdown following the active shooter situation Wednesday morning, school district officials said. No visitors were being allowed on campus.

By Wednesday afternoon, all students had been evacuated from the school and were being reunited with their parents.

Mansfield ISD police, Arlington police and other law enforcement agencies responded to the shooting about 9 a.m. at the school at 7700 South Watson Road in Arlington. About 9:15 Arlington police received multiple calls of gunfire. One of the callers identified the suspect and confirmed the shooter was involved in the fight.

The school district and police set up a parent reunification point at the Center for Performing Arts located at 1110 W. Debbie Lane, where students were being bused to meet their families.

Hundreds of cars were in the parking lot of the performing arts center as parents began to gather shortly before 11 a.m. Police said the all-clear had been given and students would be bused to that location.

Timberview High School is in Arlington but is part of the Mansfield Independent School District. About 1,900 students attend the school.

Police were investigating how the student acquired the gun and brought it into the school. The school does not have metal detectors, according to district officials.

Lakisha Martin, the mother of a student who was not harmed in the shooting, said she was pacing back and forth in front of Medical Center Arlington hospital to pray for anybody who was shot.

Her son told her a friend was there. His friend, the 15-year-old boy, was in critical condition.

“All we can do now is pray,” Martin told the Star-Telegram.

A video posted to Twitter, which Martin said was sent to her by her son, appears to show a teacher calling out for help during the fight the preceded the shooting.

“It’s just a sad day that we’re in where teachers cry out for help and they’re not being responded to quickly and students see this and they don’t know what to do,” Martin said.

Anthony Vonkaitz, a senior at the school, said the wounded teacher, Mr. Pettitt, is “really cool, outgoing ... everyone loves him.” Vonkaitz wasn’t at school Wednesday but talked about how students could relate to the young teacher.

“He’s always positive in his class,” he said. “Always energetic. He cares a lot about his students.”

Pettitt’s sister Grace Rinearson wrote on Twitter that he was shot in the back and has broken ribs and a collapsed lung. “He’ll be in the hospital for a few days but he’s going to be fine,” she tweeted. “Thank you for all of the prayers.”

Arlington resident Barbara Davis said she found out about the shooting from her 12th-grade son, who texted her to pick him and his brother up from the high school.

Driving toward the school, Davis said, she saw more police and first responders than a month ago, when there was a threat called in at Timberview High School. Because the high school went on lockdown after the shooting, Davis wasn’t able to get to her sons right away.

“It’s not a good reaction being a mother and you don’t have no information when you see kids come out shot and you don’t know if it’s your child — it’s not good,” she said.

Davis said she knew a “good kid” who was friends with Simpkins and because that’s who she associated him with, she couldn’t say Simpkins was a “bad kid.”

After Wednesday, Davis said she’s not sure what mindset her sons will be in. She said she’s talked to them about active shooter situations before and they know to call her when something isn’t right, except this time she couldn’t be there right away.

Arlington police are investigating along with Mansfield police, Mansfield ISD police, Grand Prairie police and other agencies.

When asked about the timeline of response time to the scene, Kolbye said Mansfield ISD provides the security for the school. Two officers were on scene and responded immediately before other agencies were called in.

Security has been increased with additional officers present at all Arlington and Mansfield schools, and students at all schools were locked in Wednesday as a precaution, police said.

Counseling services will also be available for students and parents, district officials said.

Thursday classes have been canceled at Timberview.

Police said they finished searching the high school Wednesday afternoon and no additional threats were found. Kolbye said authorities have seen inaccurate posts on social media about threats against the schools and cautioned the community against spreading misinformation.

“We’ve been having a lot of social media comments about threats to our schools, from young kids,” Kolbye said. “Our message is this is not something to continue — we will investigate you. Federal government partners will be able to investigate you, if you’re not living in our city, and we will bring you to successful prosecution so I’m just pleading with the community out there to try to stop any type of threats that are coming in through social media.”

Tarrant County College’s Southeast Campus also was on lockdown as a precaution, according to a statement from the college, but that lockdown was lifted Wednesday after the suspect was arrested.

This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 10:26 AM.