Shooting at Maryland high school on first day of class

The shooting happened around 10:45 a.m. Monday inside the school's cafeteria,during the first lunch period.

Officials say the shooter, a 15-year-old male, was taken into custody. They say the firearm used in the shooting has also been recovered.

As the news spread panicked parents rushed to the school.At the scene, buses, emergency vehicles and parents in cars filled the roadway between the high school and the shopping center. There were obvious signs of relief displayed as parents found their children.

Police say this shooting was random, the injured student was not targeted. Apparently the shooter fired a second shot that did not hit anyone else by the time a teacher and guidance counselor tackled him, so this situation could have been a lot worse.

The wounded 17-year-old, who had reportedly been shot in the back, was taken by helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center where he was listed in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. His name was also not known.

WJZ-TV showed video of a shirtless male with his hands behind his back being put into a police cruiser. The school was evacuated and students were taken to nearby Perry Hall Shopping Center. View photos from the incident at Perry Hall High School

One witness told that there was a lot of blood and saw the student shot in the back. There are estimates there were about 200 students in the cafeteria at the time of the shooting.

Junior Miranda Wienecke said she saw the alleged shooter with a black object that she realized was a gun.

"I saw people getting under the table," Wienecke told the Sun. "Then I saw people running. We heard this huge boom, then there was another one, everything happened very fast."

Another Junior at Perry Hall named Leslie, said students in class at first thought the day's incident was a drill. But, they found out quickly something very real was happening.

Leslie said students knew things were real, because they could hear the nervousness in the voices of administrators as they provided instructions. Located in a middle-class suburb northeast of Baltimore, Perry Hall High School has 2,300 students and just last week hosted U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who had come to give local English teachers a morale-boost.