Authorities said that a shooting incident occurred at a high school in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado on Wednesday (September 10th), where a student opened fire inside the school, injuring two classmates before taking his own life.
Police received a call around 12:30 pm on Wednesday reporting a shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, located about 30 miles west of Denver at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Upon arrival, law enforcement officers locked down the school and conducted room-by-room searches to locate the active shooter.
Jacki Kelley, spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, stated that the gunman fired both inside and outside the school building. Law enforcement officers were able to locate the shooter within five minutes of arriving on the scene.
Kelley mentioned that none of the responding officers discharged their weapons during the incident.
Following the shooting, more than 100 police officers from the surrounding area rushed to the school. The county had previously experienced a school shooting in 1999 at another high school, resulting in 14 fatalities. One of the victims from that incident had passed away earlier this year due to complications from the gunshot wounds sustained.
Authorities identified the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as a male student from Evergreen High School. After injuring two classmates, he turned the gun on himself and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Kevin Cullinan, CEO of St. Anthony Hospital, reported that the initial condition of the teenagers brought in was critical.
By late evening, Dr. Brian Blackwood, head of the trauma department at the hospital, stated that one of the teenagers was in stable condition and not in life-threatening danger, but refrained from providing further details.
Lindsay Radford, hospital spokesperson, mentioned that the other injured student was still receiving treatment at the facility.
Kelley, the sheriff’s office spokesperson, mentioned that authorities were in the process of obtaining a search warrant to search the suspect’s residence.
The high school has over 900 students and is surrounded mostly by forests, approximately a mile away from the town center of Evergreen with a population of about 9,300 people.
Following the shooting incident, parents gathered outside a nearby elementary school, anxiously waiting to reunite with their children.
(Reference: Associated Press)