DENVER (AP) – A body found in the Colorado woods, United States, near an abandoned car was that of a 17-year-old student accused of wounding two administrators in a shooting at his Denver high school, a coroner’s office said.
Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said the body was discovered not far from the car in a remote mountain area about 80 kilometres southwest of Denver, near the small town of Bailey, in Park County. The town had been ordered to shelter in place while officers from a number of agencies including the FBI combed the forest.
Earlier in the day, Denver police identified the suspect as Austin Lyle. The Park County coroner’s office confirmed in a Facebook post that the body was that of Lyle’s. Cause of death wasn’t released, pending the completion of an autopsy.
The shooting occurred at East High School in Denver while two administrators searched Lyle for weapons, a daily requirement because of the boy’s behavioural issues, authorities said. Lyle fled after the shooting.
It occurred at a school shaken by frequent lockdowns and violence, including the recent killing outside the school of a classmate that prompted East High School students to march on the Colorado Capitol earlier this month.
Parents who converged on the 2,500-student campus on Wednesday voiced frustration that officials had not done enough to protect their children.
Amid the flurry of criticism over lax security, Denver school officials said after the shooting that they would once again put armed officers into the city’s public high schools.
There were no school resource officers on campus at the time of Wednesday’s shooting, said Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas.
The shooting happened just before 10am in an office area as Lyle was undergoing a search as part of a ‘safety plan’ that required him to be patted down daily, officials said.
The gun used in the shooting was not immediately recovered, Thomas said.
One of the wounded administrators was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon and the second was in serious condition.
After Wednesday’s shooting, two armed officers will be posted at East High School through the end of the school year, and other city high schools also will each get an officer, said Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero.
In response to the shooting, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated President Joe Biden’s call for stricter gun laws, including bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, and for Congress to ‘do something’ on gun control.
