3 Hunters Busted in Double Student Shooting

Three hunters have been busted in the shooting of two Texas middle school students who were struck as they were trying out for their basketball team in the playground. One was critically injured. A police helicopter spotted the hunters, one armed with a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle, the others with .30-caliber rifles. School classes were over for the day when the shootings occurred. But some 200 children were still on campus at the Edinburg school, and the facility was placed on immediate lockdown, AP reports.

Police are waiting for surgeons to remove the bullets from the boys, ages 13 and 14, to match them to the guns, reports the Brownsville Herald. "This is a major crime," said one officer. Deputies are continuing to pore over nearby fields seeking shell casings. The school borders ranches that are leased to hunters. (More Texas stories.)