2 adult faculty members shot at Denver high school, police search for student

Denver police converged after a shooting at East High School on Wednesday morning and said a student shot two adult male faculty members — and that a known suspect had left the school.

Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said the shooting occurred during a “security search” of a student based on past behavior — “a regular protocol with this student” — that detected a gun. The student fired shots around 9:50 a.m. “and was able to get out of the school.”

“We don’t have any sense of where he is. We know where he lives,” Thomas said, lamenting “a very troubling situation” at East High School.

One victim was in critical condition undergoing surgery, he said. The other was in serious but stable condition.

A Denver Public Schools spokeswoman initially said the shooting occurred near the campus, but Thomas confirmed it happened inside the building and away from students “in the office area.”

Wednesday’s shooting happened less than six weeks after a 16-year-old East student was shot in his car outside the school; he died two weeks later.

Classes at East are canceled for the remainder of the week, DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero said during a news briefing.

Once school resumes, Marrero said, “We will have two armed officers here at East until the end of the school year. We’re looking forward to expanding that conversation to see how we can reestablish a relationship” with Denver police.

Denver’s elected school board voted in 2020 to remove the Denver Police Department’s resource officers from schools following the national reckoning over the death of George Floyd. School board members argued that having police in schools was detrimental to students of color and contributed to the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

On Wednesday, Mayor Michael Hancock went to the school and appealed for information helping to locate an “armed and dangerous” student suspect.

“We know who the suspect is. We will find him. We will hold him accountable,” Hancock said.

The mayor also addressed the fears of parents for their children.

“We feel for them… There should never be a concern of parents that they are safe in the building,” he said.

Anae Hernandez, 15, said she was outside the school and walked up to see an ambulance and one of the wounded faculty members on a stretcher. Someone told her there has been a shooting. She ran to a nearby 7/11 to hide.

“It’s scary,” she said. “It keeps us from our learning time.”

“I feel like it’s something that everybody has to worry about here a lot,” she said. “Because this is not like something that just happens once in a while. This is a recurring theme and it’s not something that should be going on.”

Jeannie Hernandez, who is grandmother to Anae and has another granddaughter in East High, said she hates that her kids are constantly afraid, but she wants them to keep attending school. She says they will talk about it tonight, the same as they did after the last shooting lockdown.

“Last time, I just hugged them and hugged them and told them how sorry I was,” she said.

UPDATE: EAST HS
We will be doing a controlled release once DPD allows. Parents can pick up their children @ 17th & Esplanade. Students who drove will be escorted to their cars in the parking lot & can leave. Students who ride the bus will be held until their bus arrives.

— Denver Public Schools (@DPSNewsNow) March 22, 2023

The police said in a Twitter posting shortly after 10 a.m. that they were working to gather information. A large police presence was expected in the area east of downtown Denver.

Denver Public Schools tweeted that East High was on lockdown. “All students are in their third-period classrooms,” the district wrote on Twitter. “We are holding them there until further notice.”