As is always the case in these situations, it can take days or even longer to unravel exactly what happened in the wake of a high profile shooting. Facts tend to trickle out slowly and many initial reports turn out to be false. It took weeks to months before the full picture of the utter law enforcement failure that was Parkland was finally revealed.
STEM School Highlands Ranch did not have a school resource officer assigned to patrol the campus. Instead, they employed a paid security guard.
While law enforcement reportedly responded quickly to the 911 calls from (there is a cop shop less than a mile away) questions have been raised about the what the guard did or didn’t do when the shooting started. This after initial reports that the guard was “instrumental” in taking down one of the shooters.
Now thedenverchannel.com reports . . .
Shortly after a deputy rushed into Highlands Ranch Colorado STEM school Tuesday afternoon in response to an active shooter, he ran back out of the school and told his superior the school security guard had fired at him, a high-ranking source close to the investigation told Denver7.
ABC News first reported that investigators were trying to figure out how and why the security guard had fired at the deputy, and whether it was a mistake. A high-ranking source has confirmed this to Denver7. Authorities are also investigating if the guard accidentally shot an innocent student as the scene unfolded Tuesday. …
A second high-ranking source said video surveillance from the school doesn’t show who was struck by the gunfire. They told Denver7 that investigators have learned the gunmen were in two different rooms and the security guard only knew where one of them were (sic). The guard may not have known who was arriving to help, who was a suspect and who was an innocent student, the source said. The guard may have shot two rounds near SWAT teams.
The the latest from the AP tells a slightly different story . . .
A law enforcement official says a security guard fired his gun during this week’s shooting at a charter school in a Denver suburb.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the official was not authorized to release the information.
The official did not say whether the guard shot anybody at STEM School Highlands Ranch on Tuesday.
Robert Burk, an attorney for the guard, declined to confirm reports by news organizations that authorities are investigating whether the guard fired at a sheriff’s deputy and wounded a student.
Burk says the guard, whom he did not name, took decisive action that helped saved lives.
Boss Level High Protection owner Grant Whitus has said his employee confronted and apprehended one of the two suspects in the shooting that killed one student and wounded eight others.
As always, it’s best to let the facts come out in the fullness of time before drawing conclusions.