Several Shot at Calif. High School

Monday, March 5th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SANTEE, Calif. (AP) â€” A gunman opened fire on fellow students at a high school Monday, wounding several, officials and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.

One witness told KGTV that the boy smiled as he fired the long-barreled handgun.

``Several people have been shot. We don't have an accurate number yet. We are in the process of evacuating the school,'' sheriff's spokesman Ron Reina.

``We have one suspect in custody,'' Reina said shortly after the 9:22 a.m. shooting. He said the suspect was a student.

Much of the shooting happened in a boys' restroom, but the shooter also stepped out into a quad area and fired more rounds, witnesses said.

Students were escorted to a nearby shopping center. Television images showed a parking lot full of students and parents milling anxiously while paramedics took away the injured.

``I heard gunfire and I heard people screaming,'' student Alicia Zimmer told KGTV. She said she froze with fright until her boyfriend pushed her out of the way. ``I dropped my stuff; it's still there right in the middle of the hall. It was really scary.''

She said she didn't see the shooter or shooters but she did see one girl with blood on her arm and a boy lying face down on the floor.

The shots ``sounded more like a cap gun than anything,'' she said.

The town of 59,000 is about 10 miles northeast of San Diego. Santana High, which opened in 1965, has more that 1,900 students in grades nine through 12.