Denver school shooting suspect dead; parents push for security

DENVER — A 17-yearold student was found dead in Colorado woods after being accused of shooting and wounding two administrators at his Denver high school where students and parents were already fed up over recent violence and a lack of action by officials.

The shooting occurred Wednesday morning at East High School, not far from downtown, while two administrators searched Austin Lyle for weapons, a daily requirement because of the boy’s behavioral issues, authorities said.

Lyle fled after the shooting and his body was found Wednesday night near his car in a remote, mountain area about 50 miles southwest of Denver, outside the small town of Bailey, in Park County. The county coroner’s office confirmed early Thursday that the body was Lyle’s. Cause of death was not released, pending an autopsy.

The shooting, at a time of rising gun violence on school campuses across the U.S., has stoked a backlash against a policy adopted in Denver several years ago of not putting police or armed personnel into schools.

The administrators who were shot were unarmed, said Denver schools spokesperson Scott Pribble.

“It stuns me that we have civilian people… charged with having to search a student or anyone for weapons,” said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. He said patting down students — especially for weapons — should fall to trained, armed school resource officers fitted with body armor.

If a resource officer had done the search at East High School, he added, “for the most part, I don’t see it being a tragedy.”

Students from East High School and others across Denver rallied at the state Capitol on Thursday to push for gun reform.