3 people shot at Brooklyn charter school, shooter at large: Police

Three people were shot at Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon, and police said the shooter was still at large.

Multiple people were shot outside a Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn Wednesday afternoon.

Police received reports of shots fired at 198 Varet St. shortly after 2 p.m. An NYPD spokesperson said two students and one adult were shot and are in stable condition at local hospitals. A 17-year-old male student was shot in the left leg, a 15-year-old female student was shot in the right leg and a 37-year-old male suffered a graze wound to his neck, according to police.

A spokesperson said the shooter fled northbound on White Street on foot. They could not immediately provide any additional details.

Senior Latara Little, 17, said she saw a fight but didn’t think much of it, because security had responded to the situation. But then, she said, she heard shots and “everyone started running” back inside the school or to a deli on the corner.

“It shouldn’t have to happen,” she said. “We should all be safe, and we should all feel safe.”

After another teen was shot and injured outside the school last year, Little said the school boosted security measures, including conducting bag checks. She said the school also has metal detectors.

“I don’t know how this got in,” she said.

The mother of a 10th grade student who asked not to be named said outside the school that she was thinking about transferring her daughter to another school, because she didn’t think she was safe.

“I have to leave work and come and pick her up, thinking that she’s safe,” the mother said. “But it’s not a safe neighborhood.”

Kate Manion, accountability and development manager at Williamsburg Charter High School, said the school is cooperating with police and is “deeply troubled by today’s events.” She said school leadership will meet with government officials this week to discuss a recent uptick in violence and how to keep students and staff safe. Manion said there was also another shooting near the school in December.

Wednesday's shooting comes amid an increase in youth gun violence in recent years. NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey testified at a recent state hearing that the number of youth shooting victims has doubled in recent years, from 75 in 2017 to 153 last year. The number of juvenile shooters jumped as well, from 48 to 123 in the same time span. Youth gun arrests went up 62% during that period, from 275 to 448. About a quarter of juveniles arrested with a gun in 2020 were either the victim or alleged perpetrator of another shooting within the next two years.

According to the education department press office, four schools were briefly told to shelter in place, but that order has been lifted.

At an unrelated education budget oversight hearing earlier in the day, Schools Chancellor David Banks said that he was disturbed by the violence taking place just outside schools and an “uptick” in weapons found inside them.

“It’s just heart-wrenching what is happening. And we're working really hard to try to get in front of this and figure it out,” he said, adding that it’s “the issue that keeps me up at night.”

Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, and Banks, a former school safety officer, have both said they want to focus on school safety. The school system has launched a pilot program in which schools lock their front doors, and is considering rolling that out citywide.

Adams has called for increasing funding for school security as part of his proposed budget. The administration also launched a program last year called Project Pivot to place violence prevention groups in more than 100 schools where students are most at risk of getting involved in violence.

Charter schools receive public funding but are not run by the city. According to its website, Williamsburg Charter High School serves 963 students in grades nine through 12 and has been open since 2004, making it one of the city's longest-serving charter schools.

Charter schools currently serve roughly 10% of the city’s public school students. The school did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Two teens were shot earlier this week less than a mile away, near Grand Street Campus High School. Police did not immediately respond to questions about whether the two cases could be related.

This story has been updated with new information. Isidoro Rodriguez contributed to this story.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Jeffrey Maddrey's job title. He is currently the chief of the department.