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A 16-year-old male student was shot and killed outside of Westbury High School in a drive-by, according to the Houston Police Department.

KHOU-TV

Police interviewed several students outside the high school.

HISD officials said the off-campus shooting happened around 8:35 a.m., just after school was starting in the 11900 block of Chimney Rock.

"The call came over dispatch as a drive-by shooting here at Westbury," said Lt. Robert Mock with HPD.

The victim was Julian Ruiz, a ninth-grader.

The HPD Homicide Department said the student died at the scene but was still transported to Ben Taub Hospital.

Houston police said he was hit two times in the torso area in what they called a drive-by shooting.

Witnesses told police a brown vehicle drove by the victim then turned around. They said words were exchanged right before the teen was hit.

A student had gone to a school administrator Tuesday morning and told them a someone had been shot near the school. HPD Lt. Robert Mock said someone did administer CPR at the scene.

HPD said two suspects fled the scene. Police are currently searching near the school grounds for the suspects.

HISD Superintendent Dr. Abe Saavedra said there would be an increased police presence starting Tuesday after school and that it would last indefinitely.

"This is something that's very serious," he said. Three full-time police officers already work at the school but Saaverda said more would show up. "There will be an increased police presence at the school for a period of time."

Ruiz' parents, speaking through Activist Quanell X called Julian's murder senseless.

They said their son was not a gang member and refused to join.

"We believe that this killing has something to do with someone that he knew from the past," said Quanell X. "That had a problem with him, perhaps because he may not have wanted to join a gang."

He said HPD had commented to him that it may be gang-related, but he said he's not aware of a gang problem at the school.

Parents were allowed to pick up their children early from school, but Dr. Saavedra stressed that the safest place for them is inside the school.

HISD said that out of 2,000 students only 50 parents had picked up their children. Many, officials said, said they would not allow their children to attend school Wednesday.

"And lately it's just been one thing after the next," parent Rosetta Straight said. "First it started when we combined cities; it was one thing after the next with the New Orleans evacuees here, and now it's just getting worse.

"I'm scared [for my son] here," she said.

But other parents are satisfied with the security presence.

"I believe in the people that they have here, so I'm going home," parent Candace Godine said.

Counselors are on hand at the school.

HISD said the school's principal is using the "auto dialer" to inform parents about the shooting.