DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Officials say a suspect has been identified after nine students were shot by someone with a pellet gun on a playground at a DeKalb County elementary school Thursday -- but no one has been arrested.
The students were injured at Wynbrooke Elementary School onThursday around 1 p.m. as they played on the school's playground. Police believe the shots were fired from a wooded area between the playground and the surrounding neighborhood.
Police said in a statement Friday that they searched a house and found the pellet gun that they think the shooter used. They say the case is active and ongoing.
The injured students were taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston to be checked. All of them suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were quickly released, according to the district.
Channel 2's Lauren Pozen was in the neighborhood where a search warrant was served at the suspect's home, but police would not say if anyone was in custody.
Pozen was also at the school, where students said it definitely was not a normal day. 8-year-old Gregory Canon said he and his classmates were scared.
"Today, we didn't go to recess," Canon said. "We had recess inside the classroom."
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Extra security was at the school on Friday, as were undercover officers. Meanwhile, students and parents are trying to process what happened.
"To make it even scarier, this is not just our school," Abeyou Haile said. "This is our neighborhood, where we live."
Several parents told Pozen that the school district didn't notify them immediately after the shooting.
Parent Olivia Rock said the school never told her what was going on.
"No, they didn't notify me at all," Rock said. "I came here and I was like everybody else. I saw police everywhere and I was, like, 'Oh, my goodness, what happened?'"
The school district said parents whose children were affected were told right away. Students were also sent home with a letter.
Still, some parents feel like they should have been told sooner about what was going on.
"I just wish someone would call and say, 'Not to be alarmed, but this happened,'" grandmother Toni Wood said. "But they didn't."
The district says the safety of students is its first priority and it apologized to parents who feel they weren't notified in a timely manner.