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A 15-year-old boy shot by a classmate at a junior high school in Arkansas has died

Kelly McLaughlin   

A 15-year-old boy shot by a classmate at a junior high school in Arkansas has died
International1 min read
  • A 15-year-old boy was shot at a junior high school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on Monday.
  • He died on Wednesday after spending two days in an intensive care unit, the school confirmed.
  • The suspected shooter is being held on a first-degree battery charge, CBS affiliate THV11 reported.

A 15-year-old boy who was shot by a classmate at a junior high school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on Monday, has died, his school district announced on Wednesday.

The Watson Chapel School District said on Facebook that Watson Chapel Junior High School student Daylon Burnett had died, citing the boy's mother's Facebook page.

The Pulaski County Coroner's Office confirmed the boy's death to CBS affiliate KTHV-TV.

Daylon spent two days under intensive care in Little Rock before he was pronounced dead, the Associated Press reported.

The suspected gunman was identified by local station THV11 and the Arkansas Democrat Gazette as Thomas Quarles, a 15-year-old classmate of Daylon's.

He is currently being held at Jefferson County's juvenile detention center on a first-degree battery charge, THV11 reported.

Motive behind the shooting, which happened in a hallway as students switched classes at about 10 a.m. on Monday, remains unknown.

The school district said on Monday in a Facebook post that the shooting was an "isolated incident."

According to CBS News, police described the shooting as a "targeted incident."

As schools across the US return to in-person learning, psychology and criminology experts told Insider that while shootings could happen again, policies including threat assessment teams and stricter gun laws can prevent them altogether.

"It's not inevitable that we're going to have more school shootings," Jonathan Metzl, a psychiatrist and sociologist at Vanderbilt University, told Insider. "It's a choice - what do we want to do about it?"

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