(Reuters) – An unidentified teenager shot himself to death at an Indiana middle school on Thursday after exchanging gunfire with officers responding to a tip about a possible shooter, state police said.
No students were injured in the incident at David W. Dennis Intermediate School, in Richmond, Indiana, about 70 miles east of Indianapolis, state police said on Twitter.
Police received information that an individual might be heading to the school to commit a violent act, a Fox television station in Indianapolis reported, citing Sergeant John Bowling of the Indiana State Police.
“Officers responded rapidly. They did confront a suspect outside the school. Shots were exchanged, and the teen suspect decided to take his own life,” Bowling told a news conference.
Richmond Police Chief Jim Branum told the Indianapolis Star newspaper that officers arrived at the scene at about the same time as the suspect.
They exchanged gunfire at the north door of the school before the suspect fled inside the building, Branum told the newspaper.
Police and the suspect exchanged gunfire again before he shot himself, Branum said.
Police officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Police have not identified the suspect and not disclosed a possible motive.
The school has 560 students in grades five through eight, according to its website. Students at the school were taken to the high school to be reunited with their parents, the school district said on Twitter.
Schools in the community were briefly put on lockdown, then resumed a regular schedule, the district said.
Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe