The Colorado high school student who shot and injured two school administrators after they discovered his gun during a mandatory pat down had been on probation for a weapons charge, a law enforcement source said Thursday.
Austin Lyle, 17, who shot two deans at Denver East High School on Wednesday, was arrested on a weapons charge in 2021 shortly before he was expelled from Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado, the source said.
Classmates at Overland High School flagged posts about guns on Lyle’s social media, prompting police to visit his parents’ home, the source said. His parents let the officers in and they found a rifle with a “high capacity magazine and a silencer” in his room. Lyle was charged with a felony but the court dropped the charge and instead put him on one-year probation for the incident, the source said.
A representative for Cherry Creek School District said Lyle was “disciplined for violating board policy” during the 2021-2022 school year and consequently “removed from Overland High School.” It is unclear if the weapons incident was the violation.
Lyle then began attending Denver East High School and was bound by a “safety plan” which stated that he agreed to be patted down every morning, Denver police said.
The teen opened fire on two school staffers after they discovered a gun during his Wednesday morning pat down. Lyle was found dead in a nearby county following the incident, authorities said. Park County Coroner David Kintz Jr. said the results of a preliminary autopsy indicate Lyle died as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
It is unclear if Lyle’s previous weapons’ charge prompted his safety plan. Both the Denver Public School District and the Cherry Creek School District declined to provide details about Lyle’s safety plan, citing privacy for minors under state and federal law.
Safety plans are very common in schools and, depending on the size, schools can have hundreds of these plans for students…
Read the full article here