Edinburg, Texas, is in the heart of nowhere.  Located in South Texas, about 50 miles from Brownsville, the area is very rural in nature and is a haven for hunters and target shooters looking to hone their skills in private.  It is a pair of target shooters that have caused a middle school in the area to consider a wall for its own protection.  A pair of students at Harwell Middle School were trying out for the basketball team when they were shot.  A half-mile away, two men were engaging in some target shooting and authorities believe it is stray bullets from that session that injured the budding hoops players; a third man with an assault rifle was also arrested for trespassing on the property of the first two men.

The students were part of a group of 50 kids who were trying out for the basketball team on a parking lot behind the school which was converted into a makeshift playground.  One student was shot in the arm while going for a layup; the other was shot in the back while waiting in line.  So, Superintendant Rene Gutierrez is making the best decision possible for the brand-new school:  they’re going to build a cinder block wall around the facility.

“We felt very certain that the shots came from afar.  They probably came from one of the surrounding ranches.  We knew for sure that it did not occur from within the compound of the school,” said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino.  “You’re in the state of Texas and the state of Texas, like any other state in the union, has rural schools all over the country. And a lot of the schools are surrounded by hunting … Even during dove season, we get literally hundreds of calls of residents having barbecues having pellets rain upon their roof.  I mean that happens every year.  You’ve got to remember you’re in rural Hidalgo County, Texas, and it is a hunting state.”

The Sheriff’s Department will be running ballistics tests on the weapons recovered from the hunters and the bullets removed from the students to see if there is a match.  Until then, expect that wall to continue to rise, if only to prevent fatal accidents while hunting.

Tags: Edinburg, Texas,  Harwell Middle School, accidents, hunting accidents,  Rene Gutierrez, students shot while trying out for basketball team, middle school students shot while playing basketball, accidents, unusual accidents, accidental shootings, hunting accidents, middle school to build wall around playground to protect students from stray bullets, middle school building wall to protect students from hunters, weird accidents, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino, Hidalgo County

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