Kids recovering after gun at school discharges

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Three kindergarteners are recovering from being hit by bullets at school. It happened at Ross Elementary School during lunch when a gun a student brought to school fell and went off.

Six-year-old Khoran Brown is resting at home Tuesday night. During lunch, a bullet grazed his inner thigh and hit the feet of two other children, five-year-old Za'kayeh Thomas and six-year-old Marquell Sanders -- the boy who brought the gun to school. Those two kindergarteners are still in the hospital but in good condition.

But Houston police are investigating and parents are questioning school safety.

After some tense moments Tuesday morning, Corhonda Brown is finally able to smile.

"I ran, panicked, tears rolling, just was running trying to get to the school," she said. "I'm thanking God each day, every day."

Her six-year-old son Khoran was one of three children grazed by a bullet at Ross Elementary. We were there when he was loaded into the ambulance and at his home just moments after he returned from the hospital.

"He's in good spirits, thank God. He was shaken at first but he's doing fine right now," Corhonda Brown said.

But just before 11am, it was a chaotic scene at the school.

"People saying, everything, this child got shot but nobody saying what child," one parent said.

With little information, parents rushed to get their children. And when they left some were in tears.

"I was scared because the gun had popped," Five-year-old Jarneshia Broussard said.

Broussard was at the same table as the boy with the gun. HISD officials say the six-year-old brought it loaded to school and during lunch it fell to ground, fired and injured three kindergarteners, including the boy. The school was locked down, and children were told to hide under their desks.

"I thought it was a stranger but it was a little kid," student Henry Hampton said.

As parents got through the initial shock, they started asking questions.

"You send your kids to school thinking that they'd be safe, thinking that something like this won't happen," parent Dexter Williams said.

Corhonda Brown isn't pointing fingers yet.

"His injury is the upper thigh, inner thigh area," Brown said.

"I'm just a concerned parent right now. I can't really speak on that part. Right now I'm all focused on my son," she said.

She does think schools should check all student backpacks. Right now, she's encouraged by her son's resilience.

"His mathematics assignment -- he wanted to go back to school to do his math," Corhonda Brown said.

Corhonda Brown is already asking when her son can return to school.

HISD says they'll have extra counselors Wednesday morning in case students still need to talk about the incident.

Houston police are investigating how the child got the gun and if it was easily accessible. Whomever it belongs to could face criminal charges.

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local, jessica willey

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