Child critical, suspect sought after shooting near school
Parents say they felt “very uninformed” by DSST Cole Middle, Denver Public Schools
A Denver middle school became the scene of a violent crime Tuesday afternoon when a boy was shot and critically injured outside the school building.
The shooting occurred around 2 p.m. on a grassy area outside DSST Cole Middle School’s Mitchell Building in the 3200 block of Marion Street in northeast Denver.
The victim, a juvenile male, was taken to a Denver hospital. Police didn’t immediately confirm whether the boy was a student at the school.
Denver police were still searching for a suspect Tuesday night, and asked anyone with information about what happened to call investigators at 720-913-7867.
No suspect information was released.
Children who heard about the shooting outside their school began to text and call their parents right after it happened, prompting parents such as Stormey Ware to get in their vehicles in a daze and speed down to the school.
“I don’t even remember how I got here from Walmart,” Ware said. “I had to be doing 100 (mph).”
The only information Ware received was a whispered phone call from her 11th-grade daughter informing her that someone had been shot.
Ware, along with other tearful parents who stood outside the school awaiting word on what happened and whether their kids were safe, was outraged about not hearing anything from DSST or Denver Public Schools.
“This was very uninformed for parents,” Ware said. “I’m leaving my child in your care, and you can’t even let me know what’s happening in this important situation?”
DPS officials said they have plans in place to react quickly,
and those plans were carried out Tuesday.
“So we do apologize if it takes longer to get that message out, but we do drills so that our students and staff know how to handle the situation,” said Michael Eaton, chief of Denver Public Schools Safety.
Janie Rivas stood outside the school sobbing after her son stopped responding to text messages.
Through tears, Rivas said the last text her son sent her read, “Mom, I’m scared.”
Will Jones, spokesman for Denver Public Schools, said that the middle school went on lockdown after the shooting, when DPS safety officers arrived, but that information was not passed on to DPS communications. Jones said the district was under the impression that the entire campus — which also houses an elementary school and high school — was only under a lockout. Parents aren’t typically notified when their child’s school goes on lockout, meaning entrances and exits have restricted access but the school day continues as normal.
“We just had a communications issue,” Jones said. “We’re going to fix it. Our families deserve to get this information as quickly and accurately as possible.”
A crisis team was brought in to support students and staff. Police escorted groups of the middle school children out a back door of the school to a neighboring auditorium building, where parents anxiously waited to show their IDs and be allowed to embrace their kids and take them home. Some children cried, while others talked about problems with violence in the neighborhood that made them nervous to attend class.
Despite some reports that multiple children were injured, Simon Crittle, spokesman for Denver Health, said only one patient was transported and no other patients were expected.
A couple hours after racing to her daughters’ school, Ware got the call she’d been waiting for — her daughters were both OK. The overwhelmed mother burst into tears.
“This has to stop,” Ware said. “This has to be the last school shooting.”