Sheriff's office: One injured in shooting at a Marion County high school

OCALA, Fla. (FOX 13) - The Marion County Sheriff's Office has one suspect in custody after a shooting at Forest High School in Ocala.

A 17-year-old student was injured in the shooting and has non-life-threatening injuries, Sheriff Billy Woods said Friday.

The shooter's first appearance in court will be Saturday morning.

was taken into custody within three minutes of the shooting, he said.

The sheriff said at 8:39 a.m., the school resource officer heard a large loud sound and rushed to the scene where he found the victim shot. By 8:42, Sheriff Woods said the deputy engaged the alleged shooter, identified as 19-year-old Sky Bouche, a non-student, and took him into custody.

The suspect did not resist arrest, Sheriff Woods said.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers rushed to the scene within minutes, and the first responders on scene saved lives, Sheriff Woods said. "In 3 minutes (the school resource officer) engaged the shooter, took him into custody," he said.

The shooting also coincided with a nationwide student walkout to protest gun violence on the anniversary of the 1999 massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School. The Ocala school also planned its version of a walkout, students said.

Chris Oliver told the Ocala Star-Banner that his 16-year-old son, a Forest student, told him the shooting happened near his classroom. The boy told Oliver the shooter was standing in a hallway and fired at a closed classroom door. The shooter then dropped an unspecified weapon, ran and tried to hide, the boy told his father.

Jake Mailhiot's psychology class had just begun Friday morning when school officials announced a "code red" alert over the intercom.

"You could hear in their voice that this wasn't a drill," the 16-year-old junior said.

Students and teachers had been prepared for such alerts and leaped into action to barricade the classroom's one door and block the door's window.

"Our teachers started pushing file cabinets and desks toward the door, and a few friends and I joined in," Mailhiot said. "We also started tying together some jackets to hang out the window, in case we needed another way out."

In a photograph Mailhiot shared on social media, the classroom door is invisible behind a tall pile of furniture.

Mailhiot said about 15 people in the classroom waited over 30 minutes to be evacuated by Ocala police. They were instructed to leave the room with their hands up, he said.

The school had planned to participate around 11 a.m. in a walkout commemorating the Columbine shooting. Mailhiot said he had hesitated to participate in the walkout because he was worried the large crowd outside the school would present a large target for anyone waiting to cause a disturbance.

Parents and students were reunited at First Baptist Church of Ocala on Southeast Maricamp Road, and all Marion County schools were put on a precautionary lockdown as a precaution, the sheriff office said.

The sheriff said the shooting was intentional, but did not offer a motive or release the identities of the victim or the shooter.

No one else was hurt.

Ocala police, the sheriff's office, the Florida Highway Patrol and the FBI were investigating the shooting. They divided into teams that cleared all buildings, vehicles and the parking lot area. Once all students were off campus, authorities began conducting a more methodical search of the campus.

Forest High has an enrollment of more than 2,000 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.