School shooting: Student murdered in Maryland high school boys restroom | LiveNOW from FOX

734 on the West Coast. We do continue to learn more about a deadly shooting inside of a high school restroom in Maryland. This is video from the scene Friday. at japa Town High School in Harford County about 30 miles or so outside of Baltimore the Harford County Sheriff says the principal and school resource officer responded to a fight. in a first floor, restroom at the school during the incident, a gun was fired and a bullet struck 15-year-old. Warren Curtis Grant killing it. Investigators say the 16 year old shooter ran from the scene but was taken into custody and is going to be charged. I do want to talk more about this situation here. So let's bring in Harford County. Sheriff, Jeff Galer joining us live. Thank you so much for Taking the time to be here with us today. Sure, appreciate the invitation to come on. All right. Well first off, I do have to ask you what went through your mind as you hear just a day after the shooting that happened or 2 days after, the shooting in Georgia, you now have a shooting inside of a school in your area. What went through your mind? Well, I, I think this is, uh, every something that every police chief and Sheriff across the country. fears, uh, we were in our fourth day of school here in Harford County for the school year. And um, for came out as an active shooter incident which, you know, this is horrific enough And um, this was a 1-on-1. sadly, a homicide inside a school setting. Um, but you know it goes to your mind about, you know, are we gonna respond appropriately? Can we neutralize the threat? If indeed, if it's an active shooter, um, how many lives might be lost? Um, it's it's it's a panic in your brain, but I gotta say, I couldn't be more pleased. with the way our deputies assisted, by all of our municipal. uh, and state and federal partners. responded. We had in 15 minutes more than 100 police officers on the scene. Um, the school. uh can't speak enough about the principal there. the nurses. our SRO was actually in the school did not hear the shot, but responded to the commotion. and our community. How how well, you know, it's a panic. Um and how well all that process went our community. put their trust. in in us at the Sheriff's Office and the school system to to work with. all of our partners on the reunification process. So, uh, quite a um monumentous you know limited to 1 student. suspect in 1 sad. Uh sadly 1. victims lost his life but uh I that it wasn't worse. Do we know at this point, Do you know, as the investigation? continues, if the student and the accused shooter actually knew each other, Did they have any sort of contact prior to this? Yeah, we we are aware that they are. We're familiar with 1 another um, they attend the same High School. the suspect had not attended yet this year. This was his first day of coming to school. uh for the school year. uh and and sadly we we believe this horrific incident took place over you know a a girl. Um you know at at the center of it between these 2 guys had, uh, feelings for uh, and it's sad to sit here and discuss a, a gun in a school. a 15 year, old who has lost his life. uh, and a 16 year old who for all intents and purposes has lost his life too. Uh because he he has now been charged with 5 counts. Including first and second degree murder. uh, using a phone uh, handgun in the commission of a felony. Um, he's lost his life as well. Um, over, you know, a, a teenage uh, Love interest, if you will. As far as. previous interactions with this 16 year old suspect, was your office familiar with him. Uh, we were and we're still investigators are still working as with any investigation the investigation goes on long. After the arrest but we are familiar with uh more than 10 occurrences that we have dealt with this individual. uh, either as a victim, a witness, or a suspect to incidents involving the Sheriff's Office and there are other police departments here in the county. That's just Sheriff's Office. uh, calls for service. or since 2022, So in 2 years, we've had over 10 encounters with this same individual. In some cases, I don't have a number, but in some cases it's a suspect of committing crime And uh, uh, you know, sadly, uh on a path to destruction and and now he is committed. The the ultimate crime it's going to cost him. Uh you know, his his childhood if you will We played yesterday. as you held a news conference And during that news conference, you mentioned that the law requires juveniles and custody to essentially be allowed to consult with an attorney before being questioned by law enforcement and you were very vocal about your opposition to that. How can a law like this overall? Hinder? your investigation when you are trying to investigate something of this nature? Sure. in the 2022, legislative session during the 90-day session. it takes place here in in Maryland. our legislators are crime friendly legislature. Uh and we have some very good uh, legislators from my County who oppose this nonsense. uh, but they put in a series of police reform and uh bills targeting. um helping youthful offenders children. And uh, even renamed it from juvenile. uh, reform to Children reformed to try to uh make it more palatable and even our governor vetoed, this, our Republican Governor, Tom, Larry Hogan, vetoed this nonsense, on the child interrogation act because in many instances, the the individuals who you know, would be read their Miranda rights prior to the law taking effect. Right. and they'd want to talk to police or the parents would want the uh um young offenders to talk to police. it now requires the involvement of an attorney and no attorney is going to say talk to the police. We we know that and that's what we have seen. as a result. The governor's veto at the time. Spoke about this exact incident that, uh it's going to um contribute to Crime contribute to not being able to perhaps recover evidence. And in this case, the gun is still outstanding And and you know, had we been able to talk to this individual right away that that piece of evidence. and and where that is still out where that community somewhere. might have been recovered. But again, I I think that this legislation that they have passed, has certainly hindered our investigators on serious cases like this and then in other cases as well. Will security at the schools there in the county be. increased up. Beefed up as a result of this situation here, I know. it's described of course, as an isolated incident but do you expect to increase security at the other schools there? uh, we're certainly monitoring There have been some uh, social media, you know, the the the good with social comes a whole lot of bad and there have been some things posted so we do have an SRO in this County County and every high school and middle school. and then the elementary schools have uh coverage as well. Um, so we we do have a I would say a very good uh, school resource officer program, as I said, there was an SRO in the school at the time of the shooting. Um, we will, uh, enhance our uh presence. uh, particularly at this school next week and at some other schools in the county. uh, just to reassure the uh Community here that we are doing everything we can to keep our children. in. What should be, you know, 1 of the most safe environments. Uh, to keep our children safe while they're in schools. Um, but again, you know, my both of my girls went to the public school system here in, in the county. This is what every parent. fears. Uh, and you asked at the beginning of the interview, uh, you know, when I was in Parkland different shootings happened back in the day. Sandy Hook. Um, the These are. on our minds constantly. uh, absent turning our our schools in the prisons. What can we do to keep them safe? And I certainly don't want my children to go to a jail. We run the jail here in the county. We know how to keep things out. Uh, and keep the people in But is that the environment we want our children learning in And what advice do you have for parents? Because especially considering what did happen in Georgia not to keep bringing it up but that was Wednesday and then 2 days later, you have this situation. What advice do you have for parents? What do you say to them when they do Express? their concern about sending kids to school? well, I I have to say, you know, again in our community. I think our uh, our citizens uh, understand and respect But they, they know that we're not safe anywhere And again, if we lock down our schools, like the jail, um, like the prisons, um, there's not going to stop this offender from doing. this crime somewhere out in the community. Uh, we need to focus on the issues as a society. We need to focus on the issues of why a 16-year-old has possession of a firearm. um, those other involvements with law enforcement, should he be on the street had had something else? Um, given us the ability to maybe intervene with the criminal justice system even though our legislature doesn't want that maybe the criminal justice system could have put this 16 year old in a different path that never ended up with him shooting somebody. These are the societal type of issues that we need to to deal with. if indeed we are truly concerned about keeping children, safe, no matter where, Where they are? my last question for you, not everyone of course is familiar with Harford County there in Maryland. Can you break down that area? I know it's outside of Baltimore but kind of describe it to me. certainly, we're we're a bedroom community of Baltimore about 30 minutes north and and we are very uh I guess blessed we have a of overall very safe Community. Sadly we've been uh, in the national news, a little bit recently that the the tragic case of the mom this is 37 year old mom on the hiking trail. Rachel morren uh, at the hands of someone who shouldn't have been in the country to start with was here in our community. But on average, our our crime rate is very, very low. We have very few um, cases uh, but when it when we do it seems like they are, you know, on a national scale tragic as this 1 is, and, uh, as we talked about already during the interview everyone fears uh any kind of shooting in a school Um an active shooter or or this sort of event. So we're not know Community is immune from these sort of things, I guess, just the point, I I hope to make uh, we, we like to think that Everything that we do. uh, we're safe. But uh, back to your last question. what can the community do? Oh, always, if you see something say something, how many people maybe knew that this kid was carrying that gun uh, with him, you know, other other friends and stuff. Uh, if you see something, say something, uh, if something that everyone should be mindful of, Definitely, All right, Sheriff, thank you so much for taking the time to join us and and kind of break down what happened There Is there anything else you want to add about really anything before I let you go? No, I just got a praise the, the response of all of our First Responders the the Department of Emergency Services, the fire Um law enforcement and the school system itself and our community. It just we've seen some really tragic events here in our County. Uh, and every single time. I I I'm happy to be on. sorry to have to be on But when I'm on praising, the response of of the men and women of this office and all of our Public Safety partners. All right, Sarah. thank you