After gunfire broke out near a school bus stop in Macon on Friday morning, the alleged shooter’s girlfriend inadvertently helped police track him down.

The suspect’s girlfriend wears an electronic ankle monitor from a previous brush with the law.

By early afternoon, police, using a GPS gizmo, zeroed in on a signal from her monitor.

When they found her, the 16-year-old suspect was with her -- in some woods near Crystal Lake Apartments off Chambers Road, just east of Interstate 475.

The suspect, a juvenile, was arrested and later charged with a pair of weapons violations.

In a statement, Macon police said juvenile authorities deemed the charges insufficient to jail the teen and that he was “released to his father and given a court date.”

The hunt for the shooter began unfolding shortly before 7 a.m.

About 6:45 a.m., someone opened fire near the corner of Mimosa and Sharon drives, a block west of Burton Avenue between Napier Avenue and Mercer University Drive.

Officials said no one was hurt, but students awaiting rides to school scattered when they heard the shots.

A police officer later told The Telegraph it wasn’t clear whether the shooter “was shooting at someone or if he came to the bus stop shooting in the air.”

Students at the scene recognized the gunman and told police who he was. It turned out the suspect was a student already on suspension from school.

Jayla Woolford, a sophomore at Westside High School, was getting on the bus when the shooting started. She said she saw two teens talking to each other on opposite sides of Sharon Drive. Then one got on his bike and rode away on Mimosa Drive, firing into the air, she said.

“It’s just a lot of commotion,” Woolford said.

Some neighbors said Friday’s incident follows ongoing conflict among neighborhood teens in recent weeks that has led to an increased police presence.

Sinda Martin, whose sons were already on their way to school on another bus, said she was reading her Bible when she heard the shots.

Martin said teenage conflicts in the neighborhood have become “more intense” since school started last month.

“This is right here in front of my house,” Martin said. “Yeah, that’s a concern.”

A man at the bus stop after the episode described recent events in the neighborhood as an “ongoing battle.”

“Something really needs to be done about it before someone gets killed,” the man said, “before someone gets seriously hurt.”

Police searched for the suspect at houses on Pershing Avenue and on Radio Drive, a block or so from the scene, where school records said he might live. Someone at one of the houses told police that the suspect might be with his girlfriend, 16, who was supposed to be in school but didn’t go Friday.

A few hours later, authorities caught up with them near Chambers Road, just south of Pershing Avenue on Macon’s west side. The girl was not arrested. The suspect, however, faces charges of reckless conduct with a weapon and possession of a firearm by a minor.

Bibb County campus police and Macon police were investigating the case.

“The combined effort of our officers from precinct to precinct was instrumental in detaining the shooter,” Precinct 3 Capt. Eric Woodford said in a news release.

Westside High, Weaver Middle School and Morgan Elementary School were put on a “modified code yellow” until 2 p.m., according to a school news release.

A modified code yellow means the school is on a heightened state of alert. That status allows students freedom of movement throughout the building but restricts all outside activities.

Friday’s episode capped a week of incidents across Bibb County involving students, weapons and violence, from a student cut on the face with a box cutter to fights and weapons discoveries at other schools.