Brighton schools shaken by shooting
One person was shot near two Brighton high schools leading to a lockdown at yet another district school Wednesday. The shooting and lockdown was another stressful event for Colorado students rattled by recent school swatting calls and the killing of an East High School student in Denver.
"It is very emotional right now. You never know. You don't know what's going on because everyone's just saying we're taking precautions, but you don't know what's going on," said father Mario Villarreal who arrived at Prairie View High School in Henderson to pick up his 10th grade daughter.
The school had gone on lockdown after people possibly involved in the shooting fled there and were taken into custody after a traffic stop on school property. Police had a car stopped and took two into custody and later yet another person on school grounds was taken into custody as well. As police arrived, the school went on full lockdown.
Other schools near the scene of the shooting, at 9th and Bush, including the Innovations and Options School and Brighton High School went on what the district now calls, "Secure" status, which is similar to what used to be called, "Lockout."
Villarreal and his wife got a call from their daughter at Prairie View.
"I could hear my daughter she was like whispering but she was crying. And she just said we don't know what's going on but they told us to take cover and hide. And that's all I heard and I said I'm on my way," said Villarreal.
The shooting happened at about 12:30 p.m. as students from Brighton High and Innovations and Options were on lunch.
"Half the kids go to this school and half the kids go to the high school," said Richard Trujillo, who lives near the scene of the shooting.
"The kids in front were arguing with the kids in back and pretty soon I hear, pop, pop, pop, pop. Kids in front were shooting at the kids in back," Trujillo added.
Police say they fled immediately. The injured person turned up at an urgent care and the injuries are considered not life threatening. Police have not said why anyone involved with the shooting would have headed toward Prairie View over six miles away.
But parents haunted by recent school violence in the state and a series of recent swatting calls that claimed of active shooters at schools around the state are thinking about violence and worrying.
"And as any parent would do, you just you're 100 feet away from where your kid possibly could be and it's not close enough," said Villarreal.
