Desmond Holly, 16, ID’ed as Evergreen High School shooter in Colorado
Desmond Holly, 16, ID’ed as Evergreen High School shooter in Colorado.
Police say Holly shot 2 students before taking his own life Wednesday.
“We’re looking at a motive, we don’t have one yet,” an official said. “He was radicalized by some extremist network, & the details of that will be down the road, & we wanted to give you that much about maybe a mindset for him.”
Denver7 Investigates’ Chief Tony Kovaleski learned from two high-ranking sources that the shooter had been identified as Holly, and he was the first to report this earlier on Thursday morning.
Two other students were transported to a hospital following the shooting. One of them is still at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital and is in critical condition. The other, who authorities said is also still in critical condition, was taken to another facility and is expected to recover. Security is present at both hospitals. Authorities said they initially thought a fourth person may have been injured in connection with the shooting, but no longer believe that is the case.
During a press conference on Thursday morning, Jacki Kelley, public information officer with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, praised the Evergreen High School community for their quick thinking as the tragedy unfolded Wednesday.
“The students and the staff at the school were amazing. They did their job,” she said. “They did it well. And lives were saved yesterday because of the actions they took during their lockdown drill… I do know that he tried to gain access to areas that were locked down and those teachers and those students did their job and took into account what they learned and it kept them safe.”
Kelley said that the investigation has revealed that Holly had been “radicalized by some extremist network,” though few other details about this were available.
Holly had one revolver of unknown caliber, which he repeatedly reloaded during the incident, Kelley said, adding that he had “quite a bit of ammunition.” An exact amount is unknown as of publishing time.
