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1 student dead in shooting at North Carolina high school, suspect in custody, officials say

Mount Tabor High School was on lockdown as Winston-Salem police and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office secured the scene.
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A student was killed Wednesday in a shooting at a high school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, police said.

Authorities were dispatched to Mount Tabor High School after a school resource officer reported a shooting at about 12:07 p.m., Winston Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson said. One student was transferred to a hospital with a gunshot wound, where he died of his injuries.

He was identified by authorities as William Chavis Raynard Miller, Jr.

After being at large for hours following the shooting, the suspect was taken into custody without incident, the sheriff's office announced Wednesday night. Thompson had said earlier in the day that the suspect was believed to be a student.

Image: People gather outside Mt. Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Sept. 1, 2021.
People gather outside Mt. Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Sept. 1, 2021.NBC News

Officials did not identify the suspect or provide a motive for the shooting.

The school was placed on lockdown as the Winston-Salem Police and Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office secured the scene, according to the sheriff’s office Facebook page. The Charlotte field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also responded, the federal agency announced on Twitter.

Schools in the surrounding area were placed on lockdowns as a precaution, but no other incidents have been reported, the sheriff's office said.

Winston-Salem dispatchers said a school resource officer called just after noon to report that someone had been shot, NBC affiliate WXII reports.

Parents have been advised to avoid the school and have been instead directed to go to the Harris Teeter Shopping Center to reunite with their children. The school's estimated 1,000 students will be transported to the site in waves, Chris Runge, public information officer for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, told WXII.

Tension erupted at Harris Teeter after some at the scene yelled shots were fired and many began running and taking cover, according to WXII reporter Ford Hatchett, who was at the reunification site. Hatchett did not hear shots fired, but described the scene as chaotic as police and community members reacted.

The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said there was not a second shooting and described the incident as a "disturbance" with no injuries reported.

About an hour following the incident in the Harris Teeter parking lot, parents were taken by last name to undisclosed locations to reunite with their children, WXII reported.