Police say LA middle-school shooting by 12-year-old girl was accidental

A Los Angeles police spokesman says a middle-school shooting that wounded four children was accidental. Spokesman Josh Rubenstein says the 12-year-old girl arrested in Thursday's shooting was being booked on a charge of negligent discharge of a firearm on school grounds.

Twelve-year-old Jordan Valenzuela, a classmate, tells The Associated Press that he talked to her just after the shooting. He says she was sobbing and kept repeating, "I didn't mean it." He says she told him that the gun was in her backpack and that it accidentally went off when she dropped the bag.

The shooting critically wounded one classmate and injuring three others, authorities said.

Police arrested the girl and recovered a gun after the shooting that happened just before 9 a.m. at Salvador B. Castro Middle School near downtown, said Steve Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles Unified School District police force. A possible motive was not identified as the investigation was in its early stages.