ANOTHER SCHOOL SHOOTING: Student shooter dies 'during exchange of fire' with officer after walking into his Maryland high school and gunning down a 14-Y-O boy and 16-Y-O girl

The gunman who died after injuring two classmates in a shooting at a Maryland high school on Tuesday has been identified as 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins.

Rollins entered Great Mills High School just before classes started Tuesday morning, pulled out a handgun and shot a 16-year-old girl.

St Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron said Rollins and the female victim had a 'prior relationship' but he couldn't comment on the 'extent' of that relationship and whether it played into the motive.

A 14-year-old boy was also hit with a bullet, before the school resource officer intervened and brought the bloodbath to an end. 

Cameron says the officer, Blaine Gaskill, fired a shot at Rollins 'almost simultaneously' as the shooter fired as well. First aid was immediately initiated, and Rollins rushed to the hospital, where he died of his wounds at 10:41am. It's still unclear whether Rollins died from Gaskill's shot or his own.

Gaskill was not injured in the shooting. The two students who were injured were rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but their conditions have improved.

The female student is still in the ICU, battling life-threatening critical injuries, but doctors have been able to stabilize her. The male student's condition has been upgraded to good.

The gunman behind a shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland on Tuesday has died. Students are pictured above being escorted by officers to a safe location after the attack

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Officials say the gunman opened fire around 7:45am, shortly before classes began for the day

The shooter shot a 16-year-old female student and a 14-year-old mal student, both of whom were rushed from the scene in critical condition 

Sheriff Tim Cameron, center, said the shooter was injured after the school resource officer intervened 

Cameron was clearly shaken by the events of the day.  

'You train to respond to this and you hope that you never ever have to,' Cameron said in a previous interview with NBC Washington. 'This is the realization of your worst nightmare — that, in a school, that our children could be attacked. And so as quickly … as that SRO responded and engaged, there’s grievous injuries to two students.'

He added: 'Now begins the second phase of this operation and that’s the background and the investigation and the attempt for the school to return to normal, so to speak.'  

Shortly after 8:30am, the St Mary's County Sheriff confirmed there had been a shooting at the school, but said the situation was 'contained'. 

Parents were told to stay away from the school, and to instead go to nearby Leonardtown High School to be reunited with their children.

Great Mill students were then bused to that school to be picked up by their parents. 

Several of the students going home with their parents told reporters that they were afraid to go back to school after what happened. 

At least one woman, who picked up two kids, said she wouldn't force them.   

'Home school, the internet, they're not going back!' she said. 

The female student has been stabilized. The male student's condition has been upgraded to 'good'

Parents were told to stay away from the school, and to instead meet at another nearby school to be reunited with their kids 

FBI and ATF are on the scene investigating the shooting with local law enforcemen

A student named Jonathan Freese called into CNN while he was in lockdown in his math class and said that he was told the shooting happened in the art hallway.

'I'm still a little shaken up. I didn't think it would happen,' Freese told CNN.  

Senior Terrence Rhames told the Baltimore Sun that he knew exactly what was happening when he heard the a loud crack while standing outside his first period class.

He said he started running towards a nearby bathroom but realized it was a 'dead end'. Instead he turned around and headed for the nearest exit where he saw a girl fall to the ground out of the corner of his eye.

Many of the students who were picked up by their parents after the shooting today said they were afraid to go back to the school after what happened 

Above, more students leaving the school after the shooting on Tuesday

'I just thank god I’m safe,' the 18-year-old said. 'I just want to know who did it and who got injured.'

Another student, Mollie Davis, tweeted that she heard a 'loud sound and everyone started screaming and running'.

'You never think it'll be your school and then it is. Great Mills is a wonderful school and somewhere I am proud to go. Why us?' Davis added. 

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he is 'closely monitoring the situation'.

'Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders,' Hogan tweeted. 

Students at the school took part in a national walkout to protest the nation's lax gun laws just last week 

School buses were seen lined up outside the school to take students to another school to be reunited with their parents 

Most of those school buses have since left the school bound for Leonardtown High School 

Above, another view of school buses being lined up outside the school during the lockdown

Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer, the Democratic Whip, cancelled his usually weekly meeting on Capitol Hill to go to the school, which is located in the county where he lives. 

He told NBC Washington that he 'sickened' that shootings continued to happen in schools, which should be 'free of threat'.

He said that the amount of mass shootings that have happened this year comes out to about one a week and is 'just unacceptable'.

The FBI and ATF are on the scene and helping local law enforcement teams investigate.  

The shooting comes just four days before the March for Our Lives, a demonstration in Washington, DC and in other cities across the country, calling for increased gun control. The march was organized by survivors of the February 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead.

Students at Great Mills High School wrote about the incident on Twitter as the school was in lockdown

The St Mary's County Sheriff asked parents NOT to show up to the school to be reunited with their kids

Emma Gonzalez (left), a survivor of the February 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida, tweeted words of support to the students at Great Mills Tuesday morning (below)

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says he is 'closely monitoring the situation' at the school 

That shooting has led to a renewed debate about the country's gun control laws. 

'We are Here for you, students of Great Mills, together we can stop this from every happening again,' Parkland student activist Emma Gonzalez tweeted Tuesday morning. 

Less than a week after the Parkland shooting last month, Great Mills High parents reached out to local outlet TheBayNet.com, saying their kids had heard of similar threats against the school on Snapchat. 

The school's principal, Dr Jake Heibel, explained in a statement at the time that one of the threats stemmed from a student overhearing two students mention a 'shooting' and 'school' during a conversation between classes. 

They interviewed the student and viewed video of the conversation and found the threat unsubstantiated. 

They were also keyed into another threat going around social media. Law enforcement was called in on that case and again the threat was unsubstiated. 

Nevertheless, Heibel said they were adding additional security. 

Similar threats also rocked nearby Leonardtown High School last month, which is where the Great Mills students were sent Tuesday to be reunited with their parents.

The St. Mary's County Sheriff's office got a tip on February 16 - two days after the Parkland massacre - that two students were overheard discussing the shooting in the hallway. 

The two students, ages 15 and 16, allegedly talked about how they were 'too smart to get caught'. 

Police investigated and realized that one of the students made several concerning statements on social media. 

One of the boys was also connected to a person who has a firearm license. 

They got a search warrant to search that person's house and found numerous firearms, all legally purchased, but improperly stored. The firearms included semi-automatic rifles, handguns and other weapons, as well as ammunition.

The two teens were arrested for making threats of mass violence. David Fairfax, 39,  was also arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, access to a firearm by a minor and illegal transfer of a firearm. It's unclear what his relation to the teens was. 

That case is still pending.  

Anyone with information regarding the shooting is being asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324)

About 1,600 students attend the school in St Mary's County, Maryland - about an hour-and-a-half outside Washington, DC