By William Prichard
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
A 16-year-old male student was shot outside Catonsville High School after dismissal on the afternoon of Feb. 8 and taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
A student at the school, Sean E. Potter Jr., 18, has been charged with attempted murder, assault, and the use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime, police said.
A 16-year-old student also connected to the shooting will be charged as a juvenile, police said. Baltimore County Detectives believe the shooting stemmed from an off-campus verbal argument that had occurred earlier in the day. The victim is expected to recover.
Potter’s attorney Rodney Gray could not be reached for comment.
Charles Herndon, a communications specialist for Baltimore County Public Schools, said that BCPS continues to work with police to monitor and address incidents before they become violent.
“When students understand that they will be caught and they will be prosecuted, there is a strong deterrent to resorting to the kind of violence we saw at Catonsville HS,” Herndon said.
According to Baltimore County Public Schools, the students involved in the shooting did not pose a threat to school safety beyond the nearby students.
They could not disclose whether the involved students had ever been disciplined or were considered an immediate threat to the school. The district made trauma counselors available to the school community and had frequent patrols made by Baltimore County Police.
While Baltimore County Police are still investigating the case, police spokesperson Joy Stewart said they could not disclose if the weapon used was a ghost gun. Ghost guns are sold as prebuilt kits meant to be completed by the owner.
According to an article from The Baltimore Sun, 31 of the 187 guns seized by Baltimore Police during the first three weeks of the year were ghost guns. If police determine that the gun used at Catonsville High School was a ghost gun, it will mark the second Maryland school shooting with a ghost gun in as many months.
On January 23, a Montgomery County school student used a ghost gun to shoot a male student in the bathroom at Magruder High School in Rockville.
Maryland lawmakers have made numerous attempts to ban the sale of ghost guns over the past five years but have yet to achieve any real success.
“Baltimore County will be doing all that we can to support the police department in this investigation, and we are confident in their ability to investigate and bring this to a resolution,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. told the Sun.
Neither the county executive nor County Council’s office responded to a request for comment to discuss the county’s plan to keep residents and school students safe.