A shooting outside a St. Paul school stemmed from a fight between young people and they later told police that talk of gang affiliations came up, according to a court document filed Thursday.

A 14-year-old boy was wounded in the leg outside Washington Technology Magnet School while classes were going on inside, and a 16-year-old boy is charged with second-degree assault.

Police responded at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday to the building, which houses both a middle school and a high school, off Rice Street and Arlington Avenue after receiving a report of shots fired outside the school.

The juvenile petition against the 16-year-old gives the following information from prosecutors:

A person who’d been flagged down about a fight in the parking lot reported seeing three students who left the school earlier; two were middle school students and one a high school student. The witness said two males were on Nebraska Avenue and they all began to fight.

A parent picking up her child from school was in her vehicle with her daughter and two small children. She saw a male pull out a handgun and fire two shots at three males, and heard him say, “I’m going to be back at you all … I got you.” She later identified the 16-year-old as the shooter.

Responding officers “noticed a male dart out into traffic, like he was running from something,” the petition said, adding that he matched the description of the shooting suspect. He was identified as a 16-year-old and is now charged.

Officers found the injured 14-year-old at his home. His leg was bandaged and it appeared he was grazed by a bullet to the inner thigh. He was wearing pants that had two holes in them, consistent with entry and exit holes from a single gunshot.

The 14-year-old said he’d gone to Washington to bring his friend his backpack. He said two males approached and asked if they were Four Times (4X is a gang of the Karen ethnic group, according to the petition).

One of the males pulled a gun and the 14-year-old said his friend was going to hit the male, but he fired at them. He realized he was shot a short time later.

Police later found a spent casing that appeared to have been run over by vehicles.

An investigator met with the 16-year-old, who said he went to the school “to walk his girlfriend back up there,” the petition said. He was walking home when he said three “dudes came up to him” and asked if he was affiliated with a certain gang. He “asked them if they were asking that because he was Black.”

The 16-year-old said “the males started approaching him in a fighting stance,” one “threw a punch at him and he weaved out of the way,” the petition continued. He said he was running, heard a loud boom and saw people scatter. He said “he ran because he was confused and that’s when he was stopped by the police.”

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