The Arlington Police Department received many calls concerning a shooting on the second floor of Timberview High School yesterday morning at 9:15 a.m.
According to the reports, a total of four people were shot. Three of the victims are students, while the fourth is a 25-year-old English professor.
Following the shooting, the school was locked down. George Timothy Simpkins, manhunt immediately began for 18-year-old.
We are looking for a shooting suspect in today’s incident at @mansfieldisd Timberview School. Please call 911 if you know the whereabouts of 18-year old Timothy George Simpkins who may be driving a 2018 Silver Dodge Charger with license plate PFY-6260. pic.twitter.com/npaNVBDXRp
— Arlington Police, TX (@ArlingtonPD) October 6, 2021
Below, the video shows a large group of frightened students in the Timberview High School parking lot.
BREAKING: Texas police are investigating an active shooter situation at Timberview High School in Arlington, Texas, the school district confirmed to CBS News. The school is on lockdown and the investigation is ongoing. pic.twitter.com/xWqh1nhEzV
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 6, 2021
A video was posted on social media that reportedly showed a fight between two black students, shortly after the shooting, Simpkins is allegedly the student who is being flung around the room and repeatedly punched by a black male student, while Simpkins attempts to cover his face and head. Simpkins doesn’t appear to fight back, in the video, after the beating, the shooting allegedly took place.
Watch it here: DailyMail/Video
According to Daily Mail reports:
His family spoke out on Wednesday night to defend him, claiming he reacted angrily after being picked on for months. They said that while they didn’t condone the shooting, they were grateful he did not kill himself. Simpkins lives in a $400,000 home with his grandmother Lillie.
He drives a 2018 Silver Dodge Charger, and his family described him as a ‘loveable’ kid. It’s unclear what his parents do for work or how involved they are in his life.
Cint Wheat, his cousin shared a video on social media that police have confirmed of a fight inside the school, involving Simpkins, not long before the shooting, but it’s unconfirmed if the video was taken on Tuesday or Wednesday, she also said he was ‘no bad kid’ and that he’d been picked on.
Timothy Simpkins’ family alleges that because he had a nice car and expensive clothes that’s why he was being bullied by classmates who targeted him, to support their claims, they shared videos of him involved in brawls in school.
Carol Harrison Lafayette, another relative, told reporters outside the family’s home on Wednesday night, “It could have been a decision that he could have committed suicide… he was trying to protect himself. They were blessed financially.
‘He was able to get things that other teenagers cannot have because he wore nice clothes because he drove nice cars, he was like a target,”
There is no justification of anybody … being hurt.
‘We have to take a look at the fact that bullying is real. And it takes us all.”
Simpkins, 18, turned himself in on Wednesday at around 1 pm after fleeing Timberview High School in Arlington where he fired a .45 caliber pistol during a brawl with other students that morning.
He injured five people in the shooting, all of whom were hospitalized, including a 15-year-old who is in a ‘critical condition’.
It’s unclear if any of those injured were involved in the bullying his family described. English teacher Calvin Pettitt, 25, was shot in the back and is in the hospital with a collapsed lung.
Does the school have any responsibility to protect students who are repeatedly bullied and abused in school? The shootings are obviously not justified but what did the school think would happen if they didn’t step in at some point to stop the abuse and help him?
Sources: 100percentfedup, Stationgossip, Dailymail