KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City police say officers found a paraprofessional with gunshot injuries near an alternative high school

Officers responded to The Plaza Academy near West 39th Terrace and Broadway Boulevard in Kansas City’s Midtown area. The shooting happened around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Kansas City police said the staff member’s injuries are not considered to be life threatening. The victim walked to the ambulance and is alert and talking.

The school’s executive director Ward Worley said someone drove by on Washington Street and shot the employee near the back entrance to the building.

Worley said he doesn’t know if the shooting was random or if the gunman targeted the victim.

“No students are believed to have been the target of this, and nothing occurred inside the school,” KCPD spokesperson Sgt. Jake Becchina said. “There was no attempt made to get inside the school.”

The school was placed on lockdown as a precaution and eventually released students early when police said it was safe, according to Worley.

Police said it’s too early to know if a student was involved in the shooting, but the staff member will be OK.

Parent Ray Barry said it’s a call no parent wants to get, but it’s one he answered Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s a call that other parents talk about, and you just think, oh you know, but it’s not a good call to have,” Barry said.

His daughter, Jacqueline Barry, was panicking because she heard a gunshot at her school.

“I was walking inside, and then I heard a gunshot and heard my teacher scream out, and then I ran down the stairs and ran into my social worker’s office,” Jacqueline Barry said.

That’s when she called her dad.

“What came out of my mouth was, ‘Dad, gunshot, school,’ and I was just stuttering,” Jacqueline Barry said.

“So he told me keep everyone away from the windows, keep everyone away from the doors and barricade yourselves,” Jacqueline Barry added.

“They’re cowards, and they’re going to do a coward move,” Ray Barry said.