NEW ORLEANS —  A teenage student was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon following a shooting just outside Alfred Lawless High School (search), police said.

Lawless teacher Marilyn Williams said the shooting happened across the street from the school.

"I believe it was one student shot — a 10th-grader," Williams said.

"We're in lockdown. It's very organized. We have a lot of parents calling and some of them are coming down here. We're trying to talk to them all," Williams said.

Capt. Marlon Defillo of the New Orleans Police Department (search) said the victim was about 15 or 16 years old.

The shooting happened around 1 p.m. as intermittent storms moved across the area. By 2:30 p.m. school buses were lining up to take students away. A few onlookers looked on as police looked for evidence in a driving rain.

Two people who said they were an uncle and a cousin of the victim, and who asked not to be identified by name, said they believe the student was a victim of mistaken identity and that the intended victim was his older brother.

Nobody was in custody as of mid-afternoon.

"I think he knows who shot him. Everybody knows everybody around here," the uncle said.