October 12, 1999
Web posted at: 1:51 a.m. EDT (0551 GMT)

LAS VEGAS (CNN) -- Two teenage students were shot outside Clark High School Monday afternoon shortly after school let out, in what appears to be a gang-related incident, officials said.

The two boys, a 16-year-old senior and a 15-year-old sophomore, suffered minor wounds to their arms. The 16-year-old was treated and released; the 15-year-old is in fair condition.

"We believe the entire shooting was gang-related," said officer Steve Meriwether, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. "This wasn't some random act of violence."

Meriwether said the two students were waiting around after school "on the fringes" of school property when witnesses said they were approached by two young men and shot with a small caliber handgun. The shooting happened around 2:40 p.m, about 30 minutes after school dismissed.

Two suspects, a 20-year-old male and an 18-year-old male, were taken into custody shortly after the shooting. The two are not students at Clark High, a high school of about 2,350 students on a 32-acre campus about 10 miles southwest of downtown.

Meriwether said the two men were being held on two counts of attempted murder and one count each of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon. He said the two suspects crashed their car and then tried to steal a nearby juvenile's bicycle at gunpoint before being caught.

School principal Wayne Tanaka told CNN, "My prayers tonight are that no school administrator will have to go through this again."

Mary Stanley-Larsen, a spokeswoman for Clark County schools, expressed relief the shooting was not more serious.

"This was not Columbine," she said. "Thankfully this was not something of that magnitude."

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