NEW YORK (PIX11) — A school bus was stopped inside a crime scene on Wednesday afternoon in Chelsea after gunfire rang out near a public high school during dismissal.
No one was injured, but investigators recovered about a dozen shell casings outside the school, according to officials, who say the shooter, wearing a blue hoodie, ran from the scene.
“I just saw children running, trying to get away from it,” said Ever Rivera, a parent who witnessed the chaos.
The incident comes during a concerning week for school safety citywide.
Local 237 Union President Greg Floyd, who oversees roughly 2,000 school safety agents, said officers have recovered three loaded guns in schools in Harlem, the Bronx, and Astoria in recent days. Nine have reportedly recovered since the start of school in September, Floyd said.
Agents have also seized a growing number of small weapons, including scalpels.
The NYPD says 205 scalpels have been confiscated from students so far this school year, including one on Tuesday at Roosevelt High School after a fight.
Floyd claims students are now selling the blades and that they are difficult to detect. “They shouldn’t have them, and they’re readily available to be used at any time on anyone in the schools,” he said.
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In a statement to PIX11, an NYPD spokesperson said, “Our agents utilize a multi-layered process to identify, search, and stop weapons from entering schools through magnetometers, X-ray baggage machines, and scanners,” adding, “Our process is working.”
Officials say up to 90 schools use new scanning technology on any given day. However, the union said no scanning devices were present at the four schools where weapons were recently recovered. Sources said several of the loaded guns were found during fights or unrelated arrests.
“The weapons are outnumbering our coverage, and it’s just a matter of time before somebody gets seriously hurt,” Floyd said.
A NYC Public Schools spokesperson praised school staff for keeping students safe and said additional security measures will be implemented at Harlem’s School of Earth Exploration and Discovery.
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