Police responded to multiple reports of shots fired throughout Friday as the chaos of ‘Senior Skip Day’ descended on Galveston beaches.
Galveston Police Chief Doug Balli says his department expected several high school seniors to flood to the beaches in his city thanks to a social media post that was shared more than 30,000 times.
While Balli initially claimed the large crowd of students were from HISD, he later admitted there was no way to tell what school the kids were from.
Balli says high school students staged at a Buc-ee’s just outside of Galveston before heading to the island around 11:30 a.m.
According to law enforcement, officers responded to multiple reports of shots fired throughout the day.
Just before 1:20 p.m., gunfire was reported near 13-Mile Road, triggering panic among the large crowd of high school seniors. While no injuries have been reported, the incident led to traffic jams and road closures.
Dozens of individuals attempted to climb over and even drive over the dunes that separate the beach from nearby homes in an effort to escape the chaos. However, Balli confirmed that no one had been injured by gunfire, and one suspect was taken into custody. A firearm was also recovered at the scene.
In response to the incident, Galveston police closed a 5-mile stretch of beaches from Sunny Beach at 8 Mile Road to 13 Mile Road, located near Galveston Island State Park.
Balli says his officers recovered multiple firearms throughout the day.
Galveston police say they are also investigating an aggravated assault.
The City of Galveston PIO confirmed with KPRC 2 that the beach was overwhelmed with traffic Friday afternoon.
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