Student shot after argument at North Carolina high school

WINSTON-SALEM N.C. (Reuters) - An argument between two male students outside a North Carolina high school early on Tuesday ended with one of them shooting the other, police said. The shooter, who was not identified by officials because he is a juvenile, has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, said William Halliburton, the police chief in Albemarle, about 40 miles northeast of Charlotte. Police received a call about shots fired at Albemarle High School at 7:40 a.m. EDT and arrived to find a 16-year-old student shot in the hip and abdomen, Halliburton said. The suspected shooter surrendered to school staff and was quickly taken into custody by police, Halliburton said. The shooting occurred before classes began in a courtyard outside the school's front entrance, and police recovered the handgun that the shooter had pulled from his waistband before firing off shots, police said. "There was an argument or some type of altercation that led up to it," Halliburton said. The chief said the teen who was shot was undergoing surgery for his injuries. He had no other details about the student's condition. The school was put on lockdown immediately after the shooting. Students were later evacuated and sent home for the day. (Reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Eric Walsh)