HOUSTON -- A student was killed in a drive-by shooting on his way to school at Westbury High School on Tuesday, officials told KPRC Local 2.

Houston police said Julian Ruiz,16, was shot in the chest on a sidewalk behind the school on Dryad Drive near Burdine Street at about 8:45 a.m.

Officials said Ruiz was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital, where he died.

Police said two men in a car talked to the ninth-grader and then opened fire. The shooters escaped in a light-brown Mercury Cougar with tinted windows and chrome wheels, officials said.

No one else was injured.

Houston Independent School District Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said the shooting might be gang-related.

Classes at the school were not interrupted, but approximately 50 parents picked up their children anyway.

"There's probably no safer place in the community than the school itself," Saavedra said.

Principal Eric Coleman notified parents about the shooting through an automated system that called more than 1,000 homes.

There was heightened security at the school when classes let out for the day.

"I think you'll see an increase in the number of HPD officers as well as HISD police officers in and around the campus," HISD Police Chief Charles Wiley said.

Parents rushed to the campus after learning about the shooting.

"I was scared because I didn't know if it was my son," parent Lexy Rivera said. "I hope they get the guys that did it. I really do. This has to stop. Either way, it has to stop."

PTO President Sheryl Namee said she does not have concerns for her daughter's safety.

"It's a really good school. I’m sorry what happened to the child. I can't even imagine the grief the mother and child is going through. But, for me, as a mother, I would never put my daughter in harm's way and she's not in harm's way here," Namee said.

Ruiz's family said he was not a gang member. He had plans to graduate early and enter the military.

"He didn't feel safe in school. That's what it was. He didn't feel safe. He didn't like it at the school because there was so much stuff going on," his father Salvador Ruiz said.

There are no suspects in the case and a motive is not yet known.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.