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We are continuing to cover this developing situation. Read the latest news on the school shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, at this link.
A Jefferson County community is reeling after a shooting at Evergreen High School Wednesday left two students seriously injured and the suspected shooter, also a student, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“No child should ever face this kind of danger,” Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent Tracy Dorland said Wednesday evening. “And no community should be asked to absorb this kind of pain. As Jeffco superintendent, I am angry, and I am heartbroken.”
The first 911 call came from Evergreen High at 12:24 p.m., Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said. Law enforcement was on site within two minutes and made contact with the suspected shooter, a teen boy, within five minutes, she said.
All three students were transported to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood. Late Wednesday evening, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said on X that the suspected shooter had died of his injuries.
Dr. Brian Blackwood, the head of trauma at St. Anthony hospital, had said earlier on Wednesday that one student had non-life threatening injuries and was in stable condition and two others were in critical condition.
Kelley said there was no school resource officer at the school. A school district spokesperson said Evergreen High does have an SRO.
Kelley described multiple crime scenes inside and outside the school building, and said it will take time to piece together what happened.
A large number of students saw or heard the shooting, and some students said they were shot at, she said. Law enforcement will be interviewing witnesses for some time.
“This is the scariest thing you could ever think that could happen,” Kelley said. “I know we always say ‘not again,’ and here we are.”
About 900 students attend Evergreen High, located 29 miles southwest of Denver. A reunification center to connect Evergreen High students with their parents was set up about 6 miles away at Bergen Meadow Elementary School.
The school district canceled all after-school activities Wednesday.
“In Jeffco, we will continue to advocate for every single tool available to keep our students safe,” Dorland said. “The nation is tired of statements filled with platitudes of thoughts and prayers. What we need is courage. What we need is the collective will of our entire community.
“Violence involving our young people should never be normalized and we must face the difficult truth that too often it is,” she said.
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Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement that he was closely monitoring the situation.
“Students should be able to attend school safely and without fear across our state and nation,” Polis said. “We are all praying for the victims and the entire community.”
Colorado Senate Assistant Majority Leader Lisa Cutter, a Jefferson County Democrat, said in a statement that she’s heartbroken and angered.
“Schools need to be safe places, and this tragedy is yet another reminder that we must do better to protect our kids,” she said.
Jeffco Public Schools is also home to Columbine High School. The 1999 shooting there was one of the deadliest school attacks in U.S. history, though it has since been eclipsed by Uvalde, Sandy Hook, and Parkland. The district has taken on a national leadership role in school safety initiatives. Dorland said Wednesday’s shooting at Evergreen High “reopens old wounds.”
Colorado does not have more mass shootings than other states, but it has seen a large share of high-profile events, including the Aurora theater shooting and the Club Q massacre.
Colorado lawmakers adopted the Claire Davis Act in 2015, named after a student who was murdered at Arapahoe High School in Littleton. The law gives school officials a responsibility to respond to credible threats and exposes them to legal liability for failure to act.
In 2023, lawmakers expanded the state’s “red flag” law to include educators among those people who could ask a judge to temporarily remove someone’s guns because they presented a danger to themselves or others. However, the law has not resulted in a large increase in what are known as extreme risk protection orders.
That same year, the state created the Office of School Safety to consolidate grants and training and share information about best practices.
A study by the Colorado School of Health found that one in four Colorado teens have easy access to firearms, and of those, half said they could get a gun within 10 minutes.
This story has been updated throughout with additional information.
Chalkbeat National Editor Erica Meltzer and Higher Education Reporter Jason Gonzales contributed to this report.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.