Maryland high school shooting victim to be taken off life support

A 16-year-old girl who was critically wounded this week when she was shot by a fellow student at her high school in Maryland would be taken off life support on Thursday evening, her mother said.

Melissa Willey told a news briefing at Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly, Maryland, that she would take her daughter, Jaelynn Willey, off life support because she was brain-dead.

"She will not make it. We will be taking her off life support this evening. She is brain-dead and has nothing, no life left in her," Melissa Willey told reporters.

A tearful Melissa Willey held one of her younger children as her husband, Daniel, stood beside her while she spoke about Jaelynn, the second eldest of her nine children.

The fundraising website YouCaring showed on Thursday night that more than $72,500 of a goal of $75,000 had been raised to pay medical expenses.

Austin Rollins, a 17-year-old student at Great Mills High School, is suspected of bringing his father's handgun to the school on Tuesday morning and shooting Willey in a hallway, according to the St Mary's County Sheriff's Office.

Rollins had been in a relationship with Willey that recently ended, the sheriff's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

School resource officer Blaine Gaskill confronted Rollins and fired one shot at him as Rollins simultaneously fired a shot, according to police. Rollins died hours later at a hospital. The officer was not harmed.

An autopsy is being carried out on Rollins to determine whether he was killed by a shot fired by the officer or from a self-inflicted gunshot. Investigators also remain uncertain over who fired a shot that hit a 14-year-old student in the leg, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said.

Willey was taken off life support two days before students and supporters across the United States will hold "March for Our Lives" protests against gun violence following the murder on February 14 of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The Maryland shooting was the 33rd at a US school this year.