DENVER — One of the suspects in a fatal attack at a suburban Denver high school in 2019 had become such a chronic drug user in the months before the shooting that he likely “couldn’t think, concentrate or understand” events around him that day, a toxicologist called by the defense testified Friday. Toxicologist Wanda Guidry […]
Kendrick Castillo
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
As STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting trial opens, two views of what happened in Room 107
The trial of one of two former STEM School Highlands Ranch students accused of attacking the school in 2019, killing one classmate and injuring six others, opened Thursday with the sound of a teacher’s frantic breathing. “There’s a shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch!” the teacher, Erin Christian, cried in a call to 911 on […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
STEM School Highlands Ranch shooter sentenced to life in prison after emotional, day-long hearing
Betrayal. Lasting fear. Anger. A community forever shattered. Victims of last year’s deadly shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch, including students who barely escaped death, spoke of still-raw wounds as 17-year-old Alec McKinney, one of the two shooters responsible for the attack, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, Education, News, Politics and Government
Coronavirus is threatening school safety efforts prompted by STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting
Colorado lawmakers spent the months after the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting last year trying to find policy avenues to improve school safety. But now, a year after the attack that left one student, 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, dead and several more wounded, the slate of measures they drafted to try to keep students and teachers […]
Posted inEducation, News
Teen should be tried for STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting, judge says
By Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press CASTLE ROCK — Prosecutors have enough evidence for a Colorado teenager to be tried for a school shooting in a Denver suburb that killed one of his classmates and injured eight others, a judge said Wednesday. Judge Theresa Slade ruled that Devon Erickson, 19, should be tried on over […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Colorado learned the danger of glamorizing shooters. Does lionizing student heroes also carry risks?
The youngest students learn to help their teacher barricade a door. Middle-schoolers work on how to join forces to pin a gunman to the ground during a struggle, to spread their body weight, like wrestlers, across an arm or a leg. And in high school, training in how to fight off an active shooter includes […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, Education, News
The school at the center of Colorado’s latest mass shooting is a refuge for gifted, tech-savvy kids who sometimes didn’t fit in elsewhere
As Colorado marked the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting last month, Shannon Owens considered herself grateful that her two sons attend a school she thought was the last place likely to see such violence. “I was like, ‘I don’t even worry about that stuff with this school,’” said Owens, mom of a […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Education, News
“There wasn’t a whole lot that was going through my mind”: Teen called mom while subduing Highlands Ranch school shooter
By Thomas Peipert, The Associated Press LITTLETON — A student who helped thwart a shooting at a suburban Denver high school says he was still pinning one of the attackers down when he decided to call one of the most important people in his life — his mother. Joshua Jones, an 18-year-old senior at STEM […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Education, News
Memorial service planned for Kendrick Castillo, hero in STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting
A memorial service is planned for a student hailed as a hero for tackling one of two teenage gunmen who attacked his suburban Denver school. A celebration of life will be held Wednesday at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch for 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo. Castillo was killed in the shooting. Castillo and two classmates […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Education, News
STEM School Highlands Ranch didn’t have school resource deputy because of disagreement with sheriff’s office
No school resource officer was on hand to patrol the hallways of the STEM School Highlands Ranch when Tuesday’s deadly shooting occurred because of a dispute last year between school officials and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Tony Spurlock released details of the clash late Friday afternoon, including documents related to it. In a […]