The Sparks Middle School shooter was identified as Jose Reyes after it was reported that his name would not be released. But Sparks city thought it would be fair to the families involved to reveal the shooter's name, KOLOTV.com reported. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal via UPI, his name was not withheld due to "fairness to families and news media," Sparks spokesman Adam Mayberry reportedly said.

Online news site Univision TV Network originally released the student's name. A Sparks city attorney also acknowleged the 12-year-old's name during an interview covering the legality of releasing it.

Mason, one of the students who was shot by Reyes, 12, spoke out after teacher Michael Landsberry was fatally shot. In an interview with CNN, Mason, 13, told the news site the shooter was his friend and he asked him not to fire the 9 mm handgun.

After he heard gunshots and saw students running away on the playground basketball court, Mason ran toward Landsberry upon realizing the teacher was down on the ground. A vice principal told him to run, and when Mason got up to turn toward the building, he spotted Reyes 10 to 20 feet away from him with a gun in his hands.

“I [said], 'Please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me,'" Mason told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday from a hospital where he was being treated. "I looked at him. I saw (the gun), and he braced it and shot me in the stomach."

Police aren’t sure why the shooter opened fire at the school but some speculated the 13-year-old was bullied since he reportedly yelled during the shooting, “Why are you laughing at me? Why are you doing this to me?" according to Mason.

But the student said he never saw Reyes be bullied. In fact, he said he was friends with him. "I don't think he was being bullied at all ... because if he was being bullied and I saw it, I would have stuck up for him. I was one of his friends," Mason said.

He did, however, mention the shooter had problems with other students at school. Mason said he was argumentative. "Anything you're talking about, (if) he doesn't agree with it, he would start arguing ... with that person about what the person said. I (saw) him doing it a lot at school," Mason said.

But he maintained no one ever bullied Reyes. "We never bullied him. We never [did] anything to" him, he said. "After he shot me, I thought that he wasn't my real friend," he added.

According to authorities, Mason was the last of three people to be shot by the 12-year-old before Reyes turned the gun on himself. The first student who was shot survived and its believed Landsberry, the second person to be hit, saved lives by walking toward the shooter.

Mason was shot in the abdomen and the first student was shot in the shoulder. Mason’s mother, Jenifer Davis, said the bullet missed vital parts of her son’s body after it exited through his right hip. "I'm ... very lucky I still have him here," Davis said.

Mason said he tried to help Landsberry. "We tried, and one of my vice principals ... said, 'Get in the building, get in the school fast.' And that's when I ran to my backpack, and I [eventually] got shot."

Davis’ mother said she greives for the shooter’s family. "They lost their son, their baby," Davis said. "They're 12-year-old boys ... they have no idea what they're doing."

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