A person wielding an assault-style rifle inside a car yesterday sprayed a side entrance of Westinghouse High School with bullets, critically wounding a sophomore who stood mere feet from the safety of the Homewood school's doorway.

	Martha Rial, Post-Gazette City school Superintendent Mark Roosevelt leaves a meeting with the mayor and police officials at Westinghouse High School in Homewood yesterday after a the shooting of a 16-year-old student. Click photo for larger image.

Aaron Henderson was shot once in the leg and once in the buttocks. He was taken to UPMC Presbyterian in critical condition. Pittsburgh Police Chief Dominic J. Costa said the bullet in the buttocks angled upward and struck several of the teenager's vital organs.

Police, who believe the youth was targeted, did not release his name. It was obtained from other sources.

"It wasn't a random shooting. There's something that's either turf, gang, drugs or something," Chief Costa said. "This appears to be a very calculated thing, that they knew that this young man arrived at school at this time."

Mr. Henderson, 16, of nearby Idlewild Street, was on electronic monitoring following a recent arrest by city police. He had been charged with possession of heroin with intent to deliver and faced a hearing Tuesday before a juvenile court judge. Under the conditions of electronic monitoring, he was allowed to attend classes.

Mr. Henderson had just been dropped off at school at 7:45 a.m.-- 10 minutes before class started -- on the Monticello Street side and was walking toward the entrance when a car with tinted windows pulled up. The rear passenger side window went down.

He stopped to talk briefly with someone in the car, then made a hand gesture as if to wave the person off, according to police spokeswoman Tammy Ewin. He turned his back on the car and resumed walking to the building when five shots were fired.

A school security guard, identified as Ty Harrell, who was posted at the entrance, ran out and dragged the youth into the building.

Both Chief Costa and Pittsburgh Public Schools Police Chief Robert Fadzen praised Mr. Harrell for his bravery and lauded the rest of the staff at Westinghouse for their responses to the crisis.

"He showed tremendous courage," Chief Fadzen said.

Students were herded to classrooms in an orderly fashion, the chief said, and then updated on the situation at an assembly. Initially, however, there was at least some level of chaos inside the school.

"All I really heard was gunshots and people were screaming," said ninth-grader Julian Bryant, 14. "I was already inside the school. People were screaming and moving out of the way."

The incident was caught on videotape by a security camera mounted outside the school. In the video, the victim can be seen being propelled toward the building by the force of the gunshots.

"In the way of suspects, we have none, as far as good suspects, but the video quality is good," Chief Costa said. "We see the whole shooting and everything. We see the car roll around the block, the shooting occur and the kid drop."

Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Mayor Bob O'Connor talks with Westinghouse freshman Rob Prater in Homewood about how he felt about the shooting outside the high school yesterday morning. Click photo for larger image.

Chief Costa said the video he saw did not show the victim stopping to speak with anyone in the car or making any hand gesture.

Police believe Mr. Henderson was dropped off at school by a jitney.

"It looks like the other car comes right up behind it, probably a car length away, and it appears that the jitney drives away," Chief Costa said. "This kid's walking, he's walking across the sidewalk to the entrance of the school, halfway to the door."

The victim seemed to be walking casually to the door, one of three on the side of the school. There was no indication in his manner or stride that he feared for his life, the chief said. A female student was three or four paces ahead of him when the shots were fired, Chief Costa said.

Two shots struck the building and a third hit an iron fence. Police recovered four 7.62-caliber casings, which indicates they were fired from an assault-style rifle.

Police believe at least two people were inside the car, the driver and the shooter, but could not say if there might have been other passengers.

Around 5:30 p.m., police towed a stolen gray 1996 Chrysler Concorde from the 6800 block of Kelly Street in Homewood. Investigators said the vehicle matched the general description of the wanted car and they were trying to sort out last night whether it might actually be the right one.

Following the shooting, the school was put on a modified lockdown, meaning students were allowed to go home with a parent or guardian. School security and teachers prowled the hallways looking for anything unusual.

"I feel for the children. It's a dangerous situation for them all," said Lionel Plowden, 45, of Homewood, who picked up his 15-year-old nephew, sophomore Melvin Plowden. "It goes on far too much."

A plainclothes officer from the East Liberty station was in the area and on scene within 90 seconds. Throughout the day, police patrols were beefed up, particularly during dismissal and a girls' basketball game last night at the school.

The number of school police officers will be quadrupled during the next few weeks from the usual five at Westinghouse, Chief Fadzen said

"The purpose is to say to those kids, 'We're not going to let anyone hurt you today,' " Chief Fadzen said.

The shooting occurred five days after Mayor Bob O'Connor and schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt announced they would join forces to create safe havens around city schools.

Mr. O'Connor said cooperation between the district and the city police forces shows that the school safety plan discussed at that meeting is already being implemented.

"We're starting to gear up. [The shooting] certainly sends a message that we are on target and working together," Mr. O'Connor said.

Chief Costa visited the school yesterday, as did Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Roosevelt. Chief Costa struck a hopeful note, saying that Pittsburgh, overall, is a safe city and such incidents as yesterday's shooting are sporadic.

"It's preventable if we all work together, the community, the police, if we all work together and try to get the guns off these kids," he said. "That's the bottom line. We have to get the guns off these kids. These are children shooting children."

He said officials and the community must cooperate to rid areas around schools of vacant lots and abandoned vehicles and houses where guns can be hidden. He said he is looking at using motorcycle officers to enforce speed limits in school zones.

"All this will show this is probably not a good day to try to shoot somebody at a school and, hopefully, it will never be a good day if we all work together," Chief Costa said.

The mayor said that this week the city instituted stepped-up patrols of school areas before and after class time. But he cautioned that there may not be any level of cooperation that can prevent a shooting like yesterday's.

"We fear violence every day," Chief Fadzen said. "The safest eight hours a day that most of these kids spend is in our school."