School resource officer stabbed before shooting student at Wisconsin high school, police say

Police on the scene on an officer involved shooting at Oshkosh West High School after an armed student confronted a school resource officer on Tuesday December 3, 2019, in Oshkosh, Wis.

OSHKOSH, Wis. — A confrontation at Wisconsin's Oshkosh West High School left an armed student and a school resource officer injured Tuesday morning, according to police.

Police Chief Dean Smith told reporters the 16-year-old student allegedly stabbed the school resource officer before 9 a.m. Tuesday while in his office. The officer, who is also a member of the Oshkosh Police Department, then opened fire, striking the student once.

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Smith said they were taken to hospitals for treatment of their injuries, which did not appear to be life-threatening.

Update 2:40 p.m. EST Dec. 3: Police said authorities were first notified around 9:10 a.m. of an incident at Oshkosh West High School, when a school resource officer radioed the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office for help and an ambulance.

"There was an altercation at the SRO's office between the officer and a 16-year-old student," police Chief Dean Smith said Tuesday at a news conference. "Initial reports are that the student produced a weapon and stabbed the officer, at which time the officer fired on the student, striking the student one time."

Smith described the student's weapon as "an edged weapon," though he declined to call it a knife. He said all school resource officers also serve as Oshkosh police officers.

"We believe that there was only one suspect involved in this incident and this incident was isolated to this encounter," Smith said.

Oshkosh Area School Superintendent Vickie Cartwright confirmed the 16-year-old involved in the incident was a current student at Oshkosh West High School. She said the district's schools would be closed Wednesday in light of the incident.

"We ask that you keep our students and our officers and first responders in your thoughts as we also work to bring normalcy back to our community," Smith said.

Authorities continue to investigate.

Original report: Authorities said both the student and the officer were taken to local hospitals for treatment of their injuries, the extent of which were not immediately known.

No other injuries were reported.

Oshkosh police Capt. Kate Mann told WBAY-TV officers were dispatched around 9:10 a.m. to a report of an officer-involved shooting at Oshkosh West High School.

"It began when a student armed with a weapon had confronted a school resource officer," she told the news station.

Mann declined to say what weapon the student reportedly had.

Dakota Meisel, a senior at Oshkosh West High School, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that students heard a lockdown announced around 9:10 a.m., at the start of the second class period of the day.

"I heard people yelling and running, and I heard a bang but (I'm) not sure what the bang was," he told the Journal Sentinel.

Another senior, identified only as Josh, told the newspaper he was shoved into a classroom by a teacher Tuesday morning as he was walking down a hallway.

"We started barricading the doors, and we all huddled in the corner, and there were gunshots," he said, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Oshkosh West has about 1,700 students in grades 9-12. Oshkosh is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee.

The Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation is leading the case.

The officer-involved shooting was reported one day after a Waukesha police officer shot and injured an armed 17-year-old student at Waukesha South High School in suburban Milwaukee. Police Chief Russell Jack said the teenager pulled a gun out of his waistband on Monday morning and pointed it at officers in a school classroom.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.