Shots reported at 2 schools in Omaha; soccer player injured

[April 25, 2008]  OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- An eighth-grade soccer player was shot and wounded during a game at a middle school Thursday, around the same time that gunfire was reported at an elementary school about a mile away.

Authorities did not know whether the shootings were related but were searching for a suspect in the soccer player's shooting, said Omaha police spokeswoman Darci Tierney. Several people were detained in the elementary school shooting, but no arrests were made.

King Science and Technology Magnet School was briefly locked down after the player was shot. No arrests had been made, Tierney said, and it was not immediately clear where the shots came from or how many were fired.

No one was believed to be injured at the elementary school.

About 100 kids were in and around the middle school about 3:30 p.m. when witnesses saw the boy -- a soccer player on the sidelines -- bleeding from his face. He had been shot in the mouth and was taken to Creighton University Medical Center; police identified him as 14-year-old Taylor Borgeson.

Tierney said the teen's injuries suggest he was struck by a discharged round that was falling.

Children were kept in the school as police questioned them. Dozens of parents picked up their children after the lockdown was lifted.

"It's kind of a hectic scene," Tierney said.

Steven Bryant, parent of a fifth-grader who attends the school, was on his way home from a job site when he saw a fire truck, ambulance and police cars around the school and "thought the worst."

"I just thought, don't let it be a mass thing," Bryant said. "It's just your worst fear."

In December, police responded to a shooting spree at an Omaha shopping mall. Eight people were fatally shot and three wounded before 19-year-old gunman Robert Hawkins took his own life.

Luanne Nelson, spokeswoman for the Omaha Public School District, said counselors will be available to students Friday.

Parents in the city were already on edge after threats this week at Westside High School. Officials there said that written threats were found in a school bathroom and that the windows had been shot out of more than a dozen students' cars.

Parents of about 200 students kept their children home from school Wednesday.

[Associated Press; By ANNA JO BRATTON]

Associated Press writers Oskar Garcia and Timberly Ross contributed to this report.

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