NEAR EDINBURG — Three hunters remained in custody after a pair of gunshots sent two middle school students to the hospital late Monday afternoon.

The teenage boys were outside Harwell Middle School about 4:45 p.m. Monday, trying out for the school basketball team when the gunshots sent them to the ground.

One student was shooting a layup when a single bullet struck him. The other was sitting on a curb when the bullet hit him. The coach and players heard the gunshots seemingly come from the west, but could not see any shooter, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

Ambulances rushed both boys to the hospital, where they had been upgraded to stable condition late Monday evening.

One boy, a 14-year-old, was in critical condition at Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen. He was struck in the right side of his upper torso. Surgeons removed the bullet, which had lodged in an organ.

Doctors “told one of our staff members if they hadn’t gotten there faster, it would’ve been fatal,” Edinburg schools trustee David Torres said of the boy shot in the torso. “He was bleeding internally.”

The other boy, 13, went to McAllen Medical Center, where he was treated for a gunshot wound near his right armpit. He was sleeping with his mother by his side Monday night, said Torres, who visited both victims.

Investigators have not released the names of either victim or the hunters taken into custody.

A Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter quickly responded to the area and located a man hunting north of the campus with a .223-caliber rifle, Treviño said.

Authorities tracked down two other men with .30-caliber rifles on the land leased to deer hunters that borders the campus’ north and west sides.

“This is a major crime,” Treviño told reporters outside the school.

Deputies have not determined whether the gunshots came from any of the three hunters’ rifles.

The sheriff said criminal charges would be filed if investigators uncover evidence that shows any of the hunters intentionally fired toward the school, or if the bullets were shot recklessly or with negligence.

Investigators were waiting for surgeons to remove the bullets from the boys Monday evening so they could identify the caliber and begin ballistics tests that could tell whether they came from any of the hunters’ rifles.

“It’s too early to give a final determination,” Treviño said.

Harwell Middle School, 9207 N. Carmen Avila Road, serves a rough-and-tumble area with widespread gang activity east of Edinburg. But with fears of gangs and drug spillover violence on many parents’ minds, investigators have uncovered no indication that organized crime was behind Monday’s bloodshed.

The school occupies a roughly 40-acre plot bordered by hundreds of acres of ranchland leased to deer hunters, who regularly use high-powered rifles to shoot their prey.

A wooded area begins about 400 yards from the school’s western fence line — the spot where investigators believe the shots were fired, Treviño said.

Sheriff’s deputies are leading the shooting investigation with assistance from Edinburg school district police officers. About 75 officers from several area law enforcement agencies swarmed the area after the shots-fired call came in about 5 p.m. Monday.

Dozens of deputies are set to return to the land surrounding the school Tuesday morning.

The sheriff said deputies would walk in several lines to comb “every square inch” of the hunting grounds for any bullet casings that may have been fired Monday afternoon. Investigators will be accompanied by dogs trained to pick up the scent of recently fired munitions.

The gunshots Monday were the first incident that left students injured at an Hidalgo County school campus in recent years.

A student fired Mission police Chief Leo Longoria’s department-issued pistol at James “Nikki” Rowe High School in McAllen in August. And a sixth-grade student fired a .32-caliber handgun through a window at A.P. Solis Middle School in Donna in March. No injuries resulted from either of those incidents.

Unlike the lion’s share of other instances across the country of students shot while at school — raising fears for many parents — Monday’s gunfire was a remote incident where the gunfire came from off campus.

“One thing we do know for sure is the person responsible for the shooting was not inside school property,” Treviño said.

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