Denver Parents Baffled By 13-Year-Old Shooting Suspect
DENVER, Colo. (CBS4) – Police have arrested a 13-year-old boy in the triple shooting at Manual High School on Thanksgiving Day.
While many questions remain unanswered, it was clear Sunday that the shooting weighed heavily on the hearts of people who live near the high school on 28th Avenue and Franklin Street.
Denver Police said that a gang unit was investigating, although it was unclear whether the shooting was actually gang-related.
The 13-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the shooting that injured three people who were sitting in a parked car in the parking lot of Manual High School.
Shots rang out just after noon Thursday, police said.
"It's heartbreaking," said Suzanne Koehler, a mother who lives nearby and attends church at its temporary meeting place at Manual High.
Police said that two to three suspects ran up to the parked white sedan and sprayed it with bullets, striking all three people inside the car.
A woman in the car was shot in the leg. The other two victims were boys, police said. One of them was struck in the arm, and the other boy suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital in critical condition.
The suspects ran off and remained on the lam Sunday.
"It definitely makes me concerned as a mom," Koehler told CBS4's Melissa Garcia.
Koehler, a Denver native, was having a hard time wrapping her head around the suspect's young age.
"What would drive a kid to do that?" she asked. "My daughter is twelve. She's only a year away from 13. So it just makes me think that maybe our gang problem is just as bad as it always has been."
Koehler's daughter Ella attends middle school roughly ten blocks away from where the shots rang out.
"I want to be safe," Ella said. "Somebody who could be going to my school could access a gun, and that's really scary."
Police could not disclose the relationships between the suspects and the victims or provide any further information.
Investigators were asking anyone with information to call Denver Police at 720-913-2000 or Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP to make an anonymous tip.
Melissa Garcia has been reporting for CBS4 News since March 2014. Find her bio here, follow her on Twitter @MelissaGarciaTV, or send your story idea to mkgarcia@cbs.com.
