A Lancaster High School student is dead after an off-campus shooting early Sunday, according to police.<\/p>\n
Authorities identified the victim as Myers Anthony, 16, a sophomore at Lancaster High School in Lancaster.<\/p>\n
Police in Lancaster said the shooting is being investigated as a homicide and appears to be an isolated incident with no ongoing threat to the public.<\/p>\n
Officers responded just after 1 a.m. Sunday to the 600 block of Hilton Drive, where they found a 16-year-old boy with life-threatening gunshot wounds. Anthony later died at a hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t hear a party. I didn\u2019t hear anything, but I heard the gunshots,\u201d said nearby neighbor Patrick McDonald. \u201cThen I heard the police sirens as they were going through this curve going that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald, a longtime homeowner, said he initially mistook the gunfire for fireworks and then feared an elderly neighbor might have suffered a medical emergency. He said violence like this is rare in his subdivision.<\/p>\n
His teenage son later learned about the shooting and shared the news with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was like, ‘Dad, there\u2019s a kid that went to my high school, he was unalived last night,’\u201d McDonald said. \u201cThat just shocked me that not only did it happen in Lancaster, but on my street.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald said the loss has affected both him and his son, even though they did not know the victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said the thought of losing you is mindboggling, and [my son] was already in tears, so of course we prayed and we prayed again this morning, and we\u2019re going to be praying some more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A neighbor who lives next door declined to comment when contacted by NBC 5.<\/p>\n
As investigators work to determine what led to the shooting, Lancaster ISD said it is offering counseling services for students and staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupport services are being made available for students and staff, including counseling resources, to assist those impacted by this loss. Lancaster ISD extends its deepest condolences to the student\u2019s family, friends, and the entire community during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to take advantage of [counseling] because a lot of kids don\u2019t have an adult that they can speak to,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
McDonald, a former educator, also urged parents to be more involved in their children\u2019s lives. He said he has noticed a decline in neighborhood connections, adding that he knows only part of his street and that renters occupy some nearby homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I grew up, of course, I\u2019m older, if I\u2019m down the street acting up, Mrs. Rivers can come outside and give me a whoppin, and then I\u2019m going to come home and get another whopping for acting up down the street,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Police have not said whether a suspect has been identified or arrested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Lancaster High School student is dead after an off-campus shooting early Sunday, according to police. Authorities identified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,1340],"class_list":["post-248897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-lancaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}