Dallas ISD police timeline: Wilmer-Hutchins High shooter opened fire in 2 minutes
The shooter who opened fire at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas and injured at least four other students used a 40-caliber gun and was in the school for just two minutes, Dallas ISD police said during a press conference on Thursday.
The suspect, 17-year-old Tracy Haynes Jr., turned himself in at Lew Sterrett Justice Center about 9 p.m. Tuesday, about eight hours after the shooting, Dallas ISD police said. Haynes, a student at Wilmer-Hutchins, faces charges of aggravated assault in a mass shooting and is being held on $600,000 bond, according to jail records.
One of the victims suffered an injury from falling while running, while the others were shot, Dallas ISD Police Chief Albert Martinez said in the press conference. All of the victims are expected to recover.
Police released more details of the shooting’s timeline. Based on video evidence, at 12:56 p.m. Tuesday, the shooter arrived at the Wilmer-Hutchins High School parking lot and parked his car on the north side of the school. At 12:58 p.m., the shooter got out of his car, walked around to the west side of the school and approached a side door or back door, which was locked, at 1:01 p.m., Martinez said.
Another student, who police have now identified, opened that locked door on the west side of the building, and Haynes entered, Martinez said.
Haynes was seen on the surveillance video going down the hallway toward the cafeteria, and at 1:02 p.m., he opened fire and wounded four students, and the other students who were in the hallway scrambled away, Martinez said.
After the shooting, Haynes exited the same door and ran back to the car that he had parked in the lot at the north side of the school, Martinez said.
“From the point of entry into the school to the time you exit is less than two minutes,” he said.
Dallas ISD addresses safety concerns after shooting
Martinez said the school, which had another shooting in 2024, has been working on safety protocols and emphasized that this entry was not made through the front doors and the metal detectors.
“Our metal detectors were operating effectively,” Martinez said. “I want to emphasize to you all that all the doors at this campus were locked and were secure.”
During Thursday’s news conference, reporters asked why the school district waited for about four hours on Tuesday to notify the public that the shooter was not yet in custody. Martinez responded that school officials were dealing with a large high school. After confirming aid is being given, the priority is to evacuate students, he said. Once that’s done, police begin clearing the school. Information was sent out to the public after those steps were completed, Martinez said.
In potential active shooter situations, there’s often concern about a second suspect, real or imagined, Martinez said. Officials chose not to immediate release details about the suspect because they lacked a clear description, he said.
Martinez said that because of fire code compliance, the school has a door with push bars which is locked and it cannot be opened from the outside but it can be opened from inside the building.
The student who opened the door violated the school’s code of conduct and will face administrative penalties, officials said. Investigators are also looking into that in the criminal investigation and further potential criminal charges will be determined, he said.
Police investigate shooting suspect’s social media livestream
Martinez said police don’t have information about the motivation behind the shooting but that the suspect appeared to be targeting at least one of the victims.
“While we can’t give specifics, what appears to be clear is that this was not random in terms of the intent and again, the culpability of the other individual that created the vulnerability is still under investigation,” he said.
“We do believe there’s a dispute taking place,” Martinez said, “Obviously, there’s social media that he (Haynes) posted articulating his thoughts, and we are looking into that.”
In a video posted to Instagram, Haynes appears to be livestreaming while driving away from the school after the shooting. He says in the video that someone had threatened to kill him.
“I know I was wrong for what I did. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to do it,” Haynes says in the video, in which he also talks about the deaths of his loved ones. “My mama gone, my granny gone, everybody gone that I love, so I can’t go. I can’t go. I’d rather y’all see me like this, locked up, than y’all see me dead in the ground.”
Martinez said that district officials are working with the Dallas Police Department to determine if the incident was a gang dispute.
A man told police and media outlets that he unwittingly gave Haynes a ride following the shooting after the suspect apparently crashed his car.
Milton Nieto told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV that Haynes flagged him down and asked for a ride, and he dropped the teen off at a gas station, where Haynes got into another car. Nieto said he wasn’t aware at the time that there had been a shooting or that police were looking for the suspect.
“If I had any idea what was happening, obviously, I wouldn’t have tried to help,” he told WFAA.
Additional security before Wilmer-Hutchins High reopens
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said that there are 13 entrances to the school campus and the district will place additional staff members from now until the end of the school year at each of those entrances.
“I can guarantee that another student cannot open one of these doors from the inside and let anyone unauthorized in,” Elizalde said.
After the 2024 shooting, during which a student was shot in the leg inside a classroom, school officials said a staff member’s mistake allowed the shooter to bring the gun in through the main entrance. Martinez said school officials have upgraded the surveillance cameras and have a security operation center that can help them monitor any incidents on campus.
Still, Martinez said he doesn’t know if Tuesday’s shooting was preventable, “when somebody puts their mind to it and we’re doing everything that we can.”
“So many of those students are there just for an education and to elevate them — that’s who we’re focused on,” Martinez said. “And those few bad apples, it’s our job to be surgical and precise.”
Wilmer-Hutchins High School will remain closed on Monday. The staff will return on Tuesday and the students are expected to return on Wednesday, Martinez said.
This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 3:09 PM.