Boy Critically Wounded in High School Shooting

Police began receiving 911 calls from the Lawrence and Midland campus after the shots rang out just before noon.

The teen was reportedly discovered near the pool inside the building bleeding from at least one gunshot wound to the chest. His injuries are life threatening and he remains in critical condition.

The ETF has set up a command post outside as the search for suspects continues and Chief Bill Blair is on scene as well, a sign of how seriously police are taking this case.

It's reported the weapon that was used may be a sawed off shotgun.

Blair says it started just before noon when some kind of fight broke out involving at least one student at the school.

The incident took place in a large green space behind the parking lot at the school and the victim may have staggered back inside. The gunman and at least two others ran off. Police are sure they didn't go back inside but they don't know if the shooter was also a Bendale student.

An early description suggests he's:

• 18-19,
• 5'8"-5'10"
• Black
  

He was wearing a cloth hat and a back pack.

A huge perimeter has been set up along Midland Ave. and the road is closed off from Lawrence all the way to Ellesmere so motorists are advised to avoid the area. Heavily armed ETF officers can be seen patrolling the street.

Nearby Donwood Park P.S., David and Mary Thomson C.I. and Highbrook Learning Centre were also placed in lockdown as a precaution but the prohibitions at all the locations - including Bendale - were lifted just before 2:30pm.

The shooting comes the day after Toronto Police began patrolling some local schools - but Bendale isn't one of them.

It's the latest in what is becoming a series of lockdowns in GTA schools of late. On Monday, Newtonbrook Secondary S.S. in North York was off limits after a gun threat. Another school in Malton was shuttered when a drive-by shooting took place nearby.