Maryland School Shooting Victim To be Taken Off Of Life Support

Jaelynn Willey, the Maryland high school student who was shot in the head on Tuesday, will be taken off of life support after her family told reporters she was "brain dead."

Her mother, Melissa Willey, told reporters on Thursday that her 16-year-old had "no life left in her"after she was shot in the hallway of Great Mills High School in southern Maryland, according to The Baltimore Sun. Melissa was holding an infant while surrounded by her family members.

"My daughter was hurt by a boy who shot her in the head and took everything from our lives," Melissa said. "It will be different forever."

Melissa described her daughter as being involved in school activities such as the swim team and being the second oldest of nine children. She thanked the nursing staff at the high school, as well as the doctors and nurses who cared for her daughter the University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center.

Jaelynn Willey will be taken off of life support by her family's decision after she was shot in the head by a fellow high school student

"As of now, Jaelynn is still on life support but she will not make it. We will be taking her off life support this evening," Melissa said. "She is brain dead and has nothing, no life left in her. I just, I felt that as her mom I needed to make that statement to everybody. I felt like it was our place, me and my husband's, to make that statement."

Jaelynn's life was cut short on Tuesday after a fellow student, 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins, shot her and another student at the school in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Julie Yingling, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office,confirmed the shooter’s death to PEOPLE.

The shooter and Jaelynn may have had a “prior relationship,” St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron said.

Rollins and the school's resource officer, Deputy 1st Class Blaine Gaskill, simultaneously fired one shot at each other, he said.

Deputy 1st Class Blaine Gaskill

It was not immediately known whether Gaskill’s bullet struck the shooter, and surveillance video will be reviewed to learn whether the shooter may have been fatally injured by a self-inflicted gunshot, the sheriff told reporters.

"Early this morning at the beginning of school hours a male student produced a handgun in one of the hallways and shot another female student. There was also an additional student who was wounded in that same hallway," Cameron said in an interview with WUSA9.

The sheriff’s department’s school resource officer on scene was quickly alerted, Cameron said. “The shooter and the SRO exchanged shots, and the incident ended there,” the sheriff said.

“In this case we can say unequivocally that his response, his immediate response and engagement — we can only guess what the intent was. That stopped any further assault and attack on any other students.”

The other student shot was a 14-year-old boy whose condition was listed as "good," according to astatement released by Medstar St. Mary's Hospital.

Asked specifically about the nature of the relationship between the shooter and the girl, the sheriff said, “That obviously, as this plays out over the next hours and days, will be part of a very detailed investigation."