Legacy High School freshman Kiera Barnes, who was shot Monday while walking home after school, poses with a get-well gift at her North Las Vegas home on Tuesday. A 16-year-old Legacy student was charged with battery with a deadly weapon. Photo by K.M. Cannon.
Kiera Barnes plans on telling her grandchildren one day that her 15th birthday came in with a bang.
Barnes, who will celebrate her birthday Sunday, was shot in the leg Monday while walking home from Legacy High School.
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"That's not funny," her mother, Dynetta Banks, chided her at their North Las Vegas home, where the Legacy freshman spent Tuesday recovering.
Barnes had just gotten off a school bus from Legacy and was walking up Coleman Street, near Tropical Parkway, with a friend, when another classmate ran by.
"He was yelling, 'He's got a gun,' " Barnes said. "I thought he was joking."
She looked around and saw a boy pull a gun from another boy's backpack.
Barnes kept walking.
"I heard the bang, but I felt this sharp pain in the back of my leg. It felt like a hacky-sack hit my leg," Barnes said. "One of them yelled, 'You shot her. You shot her.' "
The bullet struck the back of her right leg, near her knee. When she saw the blood, she started crying.
The boys, at least three, she said, ran away and fired a gun into the air several more times.
North Las Vegas police arrested a 16-year-old Legacy student Tuesday. He was charged with battery with a deadly weapon and was booked into the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, said North Las Vegas police spokesman Sean Walker.
Police recovered the handgun, Walker said.
Barnes said she didn't know the boys who shot her, but believed the shooter might have been aiming for the student who ran past her.
Banks said a police investigator told her the gunman was aiming for another boy and that the shooter had had the gun all day at Legacy.
Walker said investigators still are trying to determine the motive of the shooting.
"There seems to be different versions of what took place. But we don't believe she was the intended target," Walker said.
"It would be one thing if it was an accident, but my understanding is they were shooting into a crowd and intended to hit someone," Banks said.
"They don't have any regard for life. You want them to know that it's (a gun) not something you play with. Thank God nobody was seriously hurt."
Tammy Malich, principal of Legacy High School, said a parents-only meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the school to discuss what can be done about the recent violent activity at the school, including a student firing a gun in the air during a Legacy football game Sept. 8.
Malich said she interviewed about a dozen students and parents Tuesday, including witnesses and some that might have been involved in Monday's shooting.
As of midafternoon, Malich was unaware of the student's identity who was arrested for the shooting and said she was investigating whether a gun was brought to the school by one or more students Monday.
Malich said if a Legacy student is found to have been the shooter, appropriate measures will be taken.
Legacy, which opened this fall, has only one police officer at the campus of 1,800 students.
High schools typically have two campus police officers and at least one campus security monitor that supports police but is not authorized to carry a weapon.
Malich said she would support implementing more severe measures at the school to ensure students and staff are safe.
"I would like to explore walk-through metal detectors," Malich said.
Metal detectors are not used during the school day at the district's traditional schools. But some walk-through or wand metal detectors are used at most alternative schools and during athletic events.
Edward Goldman, the district's associate superintendent of the Education Services Division, said students who carry a gun and threaten the safety of other students face severe penalties from the district, even if the incident occurs outside school property.
"If he's released (from police custody), the district will recommend expulsion," Goldman said.
Barnes was up and about and accepting visits Tuesday afternoon from friends and classmates who came bearing flowers. She was treated and released from University Medical Center Monday.
The bullet is still in her leg.
"They (doctors) said it might cause more damage to remove it," Banks said.
Barnes has crutches but said she is moving around fine without them.
Banks said other parents she has spoken to said they are sending their children to another bus stop. Some parents kept their children home from school Tuesday after the shooting, she said.
Apparently, word at the school was that several students who talked with police were being labeled as "snitches" and were fearful of retribution, Barnes learned from classmates Tuesday.
But Barnes, an honors student, isn't afraid. All she really wants to do is go back to school.
