MOCO Schools Increase Police Presence For Week Following Shooting

ROCKVILLE, MD — Police will be stationed at all Montgomery County high schools this week, following a shooting at Magruder High School Friday that left one student in serious condition.

The student who was shot in the high school’s bathroom had a second surgery and was still in critical condition as of Monday night, Police Chief Marcus Jones said at a news conference. Police now believe that other students were in the bathroom at the time of the shooting and posted about it on Twitter, but did not inform anyone at the school or call 911.

Police arrested a suspect Friday, 17-year-old Steven Alston Jr.

Alston was not in his regular class when police found him, they said. When they did locate him, the frame of a gun was on the floor, a slide was in his backpack, and a magazine was in his sock, police said. The weapon was a ghost gun, ordered online in three pieces and assembled at his home, said Jones.

Alston is being held without bond and was automatically charged as an adult according to Maryland law, said Maryland State Attorney John McCarthy at the news conference. The issue of ghost guns is an issue in the state and country, he said, not just in Montgomery County.

“Kids can buy them,” said McCarthy. “Kids can build them. And kids can use them.”

Schools have community engagement officers that are not typically based in schools, but there will be officers present during high traffic times at Magruder High School this week, including in between class periods and at dismissal, Superintendent Monifa McKnight said at Monday's news conference Monday. There will be counselors and psychologists in the building as well for anyone who needs support, she said.

Safety has been of increased concern in schools and the county since the start of the pandemic, McKnight said. The district will constantly evaluate what safety programs it has in place and how they can be improved, but she said that it can’t stop there.

“It is not just a school problem, but a community wide problem,” she said of safety and guns in Montgomery County.