Father Opens Home To Injured Student & Friend Fleeing Shooting
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4) - Rocco Dechalk sprang into action when he heard a young student was sitting near his house with a gunshot wound. They were escaping a shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch.
"Several hundred students were running away from the school. Several police officers were running toward the school, all of them heavily armed, it was rather chaotic," he said.
A neighbor notified him of the active shooter at the school.
"He was there with a friend, who was applying pressure to his back where he had been shot. The teacher had a phone and she was in the process of calling the student's mother. She was able to connect with the mother and the mother talked with the son," Dechalk said. "Five feet into the door he just kind of sat down on the ground. Didn't want to lay down. His friend continued to apply pressure."
After calling 911, he raced outside and flagged down a deputy, who then quickly got an ambulance.
"The friend that was with him, I tell you, he was the true hero. He stayed with him the entire time, applied pressure and the right amount of pressure. When we picked up the shirt, the bullet wound was hardly even bleeding."
Dechalk has been in contact with the victim's family and hopes to meet him one day. Dechalk has two kids of his own who attend other schools, but talked to them about safety at school.
"Hug your kids. There's that saying that says tomorrow's not promised and this just goes to show this is true," he said.
HOW TO HELP: Highlands Ranch School Shooting