Sims said she doesn’t know how to move on from this. She has told her kids to keep their phones on silent, Airpods in their ears and to stay in contact if anything like this ever happened.

“We never had to learn this coming up,” she said. “We never had to learn how to shelter in place.”

A Bowie High senior who was dismissed early for the day said she used to have classes with the victim. Students have heard the shooting happened after a fight or disagreement between two students.

“It was very shocking knowing that happened at my school because I did always have that fear knowing that it happened at other schools around me in Arlington,” the senior told the Star-Telegram. She also lives in the neighborhood and was at home when she said she heard “the chaos” of ambulances and police arriving at her school.

This was the third shooting at a school in the city of Arlington within three years.

In March 2023, 16-year-old Ja’Shawn Poirier was killed when a classmate opened fired outside Lamar High School before classes began for the day.

In September, a Tarrant County jury in juvenile court handed down a maximum 40-year sentence to the 16-year-old shooter, who also wounded another student. The teen began serving his sentence at a juvenile facility and could later be transferred to an adult prison.

In October 2021, four people were injured in a shooting at Timberview High School, which is in Arlington but part of the Mansfield school district. The 19-year-old defendant in that case, Timothy Simpkins, was convicted at trial of attempted capital murder. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

David Barrera recently threw his granddaughter her quinceañera. He found about about Wednesday’s shooting when his daughter texted his wife.

“Where is Popo?” she asked.

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