ARLINGTON, Texas — Marti Sanchez walked out of the Arlington Athletics Center hugging her granddaughter, Emily. She's a freshman at Lamar High School.
Emily texted her grandmother about gunfire outside the school Monday morning.
"I was just texting her, back and forth, back and forth, we were texting, so, I was a little bit at ease, the minute I saw her, my heart just dropped," Sanchez said.
Around 6:55 a.m., Arlington police got calls about a shooting outside the school.
Arlington Police Chief Al Jones announced the death of the shooting victim during a 2 p.m. news conference to update their investigation. The family of the victim confirmed with WFAA that his name is Jashawn Poirer. He was 16 years old. The family has created a GoFundMe account to help the with funeral expenses. Click here if you would like to donate.
According to Jones, a parent outside the school transported the second student hit by shrapnel to the hospital.
Officers recovered a weapon, arrested one student and put the school on lockdown.
Some of the students shared the scary moments surrounding the incident as they were being picked up early for the day.
Stephanie Escamilla is a freshman at Lamar High School. She had just cleared the security check and entered the building when the shooting happened outside.
She saw someone on the ground but didn't think it was a serious matter.
"I thought they were like passed out or something, because it didn't seem that bad because two people were covering it, the principal and a police officer," said Escamilla.
Lamar High School freshman Wilber Rodriguez had also just arrived to school, went inside and then learned something bad happened outside.
Rodriguez said, "When we got off the bus they told us to go into a classroom and then my friends started texting me that someone had got shot."
As crime scene workers collected evidence, parents lined up outside the Athletics Center to pick up their children. Charmeka Smith's son called her seconds after the shooting.
Smith's son called her seconds after the shooting.
Smith was so desperate to make sure her son was safe she used a ride-share app to get to the Athletics Center. When she arrived she learned her son was still waiting to board the school bus at the high school to be transported to the parent pick-up spot.
"He was a little shaken up. He didn't see the shooter, but he saw the guy fall, the one that got hit," Smith said.
The Arlington ISD superintendent canceled school for Tuesday at Lamar High School. Counselors will be available starting Wednesday and will remain available to students, teachers and staff as long as they are needed.
Tuesday's school closure will give families a chance to process the deadly shooting at home.
"This is my first time dealing with something like this," said Sanchez. "You don't know now days, it can happen in a mall, it can happen in a grocery story, it can happen anywhere."
"This is not the norm," said Charmeka Smith. "And we should not expect our kids to accept this behavior as the norm."