The two student suspects arrested after Tuesday's school shooting in Minnesota, which left one students dead and another in critical condition, knew their victims, and the attack "was not random," police said Wednesday.
Police responded to gunfire that broke out at 12:07 p.m. at South Education Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield and found two students shot on the sidewalk.
South Education Center is a 200-student facility, which includes pre-K students through young adults who attend for special education and community programs.
Richfield Police Chief Jay Henthorne said at a news conference Wednesday that the shooting involved five students at the school and that the attack “was not random.”
He identified the suspects, who were taken into custody Tuesday night, as Fernando Valdez-Alvarez, 18, and Alfredo Rosario Solis, 19, both of Minneapolis.
"The five students did know each other. An altercation, possibly related to a previous dispute, took place ... near the front entrance of the high school. During the altercation a handgun was produced and both juveniles were shot," Henthorne said.
Valdez-Alvarez and Solis fled in a vehicle, authorities said.
The two victims who were shot were rushed to the hospital, where a 15-year-old succumbed to his wounds, Henthorne said. A 17-year-old was injured and remains in critical condition, he added.
Henthorne said a 19-year-old student also suffered minor injuries in the gunfire and was treated at the scene. He did not identify the victims.
Police said that just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, SWAT teams with warrants searched two addresses simultaneously and arrested Valdez-Alvarez and Solis. The vehicle they were seen in was also taken into custody, they said.
Henthorne said at least five more search warrants were served Tuesday night. A handgun was recovered at an address in Crystal, and another gun was recovered at an address in Minneapolis. Ballistic testing will be done on both to determine whether they might have been used in the shooting.
He said that police are in talks with the Hennepin County district attorney and that charges are expected Thursday.
Henthorne said the shooting was an isolated incident.
Intermediate School District #287 Superintendent Sandy Lewendowski said Wednesday that the trauma experienced by the students at the school “will be with them for the rest of their lives.”
She said that in the coming days the school will work with Richfield police, safety staff members and mental health teams to help students when they return to school.
Mayor Maria Regan Gonzalez paid tribute to the slain student Wednesday, saying: “We lost one of our beautiful youth, young leaders, one of our students, and there’s nothing we can do to bring him back.
“I know that he loved football, he loved to be with his friends and was respected and was a part of the community here in our schools in Richfield, as well as more broadly,” she said. “My deepest condolences go to the family members and all of his friends.”
She said she and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz met with school staff members Wednesday "to let them know that we're in this together."
Walz said in a statement Tuesday: “We know that one young person will not come home to their family tonight. My heart breaks that a young life was lost as a result of gunfire.
“We need more than words, though — we need action. We need action to get guns off the streets and prevent violent crime in the first place,” he added.