(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Six teenagers have been arrested on murder charges stemming from a drive-by shooting Monday outside a Des Moines, Iowa, high school that left a 15-year-old boy dead and critically injured two female students, police said on Tuesday.
The teenager who was fatally shot is believed to have been the intended target, the Des Moines Police Department said in a statement Tuesday.
Most of the suspects were arrested within an hour of the shooting and all were in custody in several hours, police said.
“While this incident occurred outside of a school, it could have occurred in any one of our neighborhoods. The school is where the suspects found their target,” police said in the statement.
The two wounded teenage girls remained in a hospital Tuesday with life-threatening injuries, police said.
The names of the suspects and the victims were not released.
In addition to first-degree murder, the suspects were charged with two counts each of attempted murder, authorities said.
Overnight, homicide detectives executed multiple residential and vehicle search warrants, and recovered multiple firearms, police said.
The shooting unfolded Monday afternoon outside East High School. The two injured girls were both students at the school, while the slain boy was not, police said.
The motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
“Unfortunately, what happened here … is just another pointless tragedy in our community, people using firearms to settle their differences,” Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert said Monday.
The high school was immediately on lockdown Monday afternoon, but Des Moines Public School District tweeted students were being dismissed on time after police and the school district gave an all-clear.
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