A student who was under a “safety plan” and had agreed to be patted down every morning shot two staff members at a Denver high school Wednesday and remains at large, officials said.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said police were called at about 9:50 a.m. and discovered the wounded East High School administrators.
“During that search, obviously a weapon was retrieved,” he said. “A handgun was retrieved and several shots were fired.”
The student is a minor and was not identified by police.
The student was under a “safety plan” that required him to be patted down every morning, Thomas told reporters. He fled the school but a search is underway to find him.
The weapon was not recovered at the school.
Police said the student had never been found with a weapon prior to Wednesday morning’s incident. They did not say how long the student had been under the safety plan, under which he was searched every morning in the school’s office area, away from students and other staff.
Denver officials did not say why was the student under the safety plan, citing federal student privacy laws.
Mayor Michael Hancock said one of the staff members was stable and the other underwent surgery. The school district confirmed that the two adults in the shooting were faculty members.
Denver Public Schools told parents that students were in lockdown in their third-period classrooms. The school will begin a controlled release once Denver police allows students to go home.
East High School recently lost a student, Luis Garcia, after he was shot and killed on Feb. 13 while sitting in a car near the campus, NBC affiliate KUSA reported. The death of Garcia, a soccer player at the school, sparked a student-led campaign for gun safety reform.
Read the full article here