HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (WCBS 880/AP) — Two high school students used a least two handguns to attack the STEM School Highlands Ranch Tuesday afternoon, killing one of their classmates and injuring eight others.
Douglas County sheriff's officials said 18-year-old Devon Erickson and a younger student who is a juvenile and was not identified walked into the school through an entrance without metal detectors and opened fire in two classrooms.
Authorities on Tuesday identified the juvenile suspect as a boy, but Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock on Wednesday told reporters that the suspect is a girl.
Television station KMGH reported late Tuesday that the juvenile suspect is a transgender male in the process of transitioning from female to male. The station cited anonymous sources close to the investigation.
Kendrick Castillo, 18, was killed in the shooting.
According to fellow student Nui Giasolli, who spoke to NBC’s “Today,” Erickson entered her British literature class late in the afternoon and pulled out a gun.
Castillo then lunged at the gunman and was shot. His actions gave the rest of the class time to hide or run to safety, Giasolli said.
“The sad part is he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Tony Kovaleski, chief investigative reporter at Denver 7 News. “Sources saying (the suspects’) motive was both revenge and anger and, you know, reports are that that this this young man stepped up and did something heroic but had no direct relationship with the two alleged gunman.”
Kovaleski says the juvenile suspect may have taken part in the attack to get revenge for possible bullying he endured when he began the process of transitioning from female to male.
“We were told there's activity with both legal and illegal drugs that may have contributed and also told by our sources not to overplay the bullying, yes it was a factor, but this transition from female to male may have had a lot to do with the decision of the two to enter that school and use the guns,” he tells WCBS 880’s Steve Scott.
Kovaleski confirmed that there were three handguns found at the school and one rifle which was not used.
Both suspects were students at the school, and they were not previously known to authorities, Spurlock said.
Josh Dutton, 18, said he was close friends with Erickson in middle school but had not seen him for four years as he attended a different high school. On Sunday, he spotted Erickson at a local light rail station and said he was shocked at how much his friend had changed.
Erickson wore all black, a hat and sunglasses, was significantly thinner and did not seem interested in talking.
"He said he'd just turned 18 and he owned rifles," Dutton said.
A message left at a phone number listed for Erickson's home was not immediately returned. He was scheduled to make an initial court appearance later Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear when the younger suspect would appear in court.
Douglas County District Attorney George Brauchler said the community remains resilient in the face of multiple shootings, including Columbine, the 2012 theater shooting in the Denver suburb of Aurora and the 2013 shooting at Arapahoe High School.
“The community is a spectacular place to call home,” said Kovaleski, who lives in the area.
“But as we've seen over the past 20 years since Columbine, these are happening far too often in every state, in every corner and we all like to believe we’re in a place where it can’t happen. Certainly, Highlands Ranch is one of those communities where you'd never expect something like this to happen, but the fact is there are issues in our country right now that are creating this dynamic and they're happening at schools, in states and communities,” he said. “It is the unthinkable.”
STEM is a public charter school with a focus on science, technology, engineering and math. It has more than 1,850 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
As gunfire echoed through the school, students hid or ran through the halls, some shouting. Frantic parents used their cellphones to find their children as news of the shooting spread.
"No one really knew what was going on so I didn't know they were bullets," said seventh-grader Sophia Marks. "I just kind of saw like flashes and we heard bangs."
Within minutes, deputies at a nearby sheriff's department substation entered the school and arrested the two suspects without exchanging gunfire. One of the suspects was detained by the school's security guard, Spurlock said.
The security guard was employed by Boss High Level Protection, a company started by a former SWAT team leader who responded to the Columbine shooting. The owner, Grant Whitus, told The Associated Press the security guard is a former Marine who ran to the area of the shootings and confronted one of the armed students in a hallway.
The guard drew his weapon and apprehended the person, Whitus said.
"He doesn't even realize how many lives he saved by stopping a school shooting," Whitus said.