CO high school shooting has parents, students living with fear

By Karen Morfitt

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    AURORA, Colorado (KCNC) — Parents watched as police marked numerous shell casings in the parking lot of Hinkley High school, waiting to be reunited with their children. Three students were injured in a shooting Friday afternoon in the parking lot of the high school located at 1250 South Chambers Road in Aurora.

Late Friday night, Aurora police tweeted out that they made an arrest in the shooting at the high school parking lot, a 16-year-old male who will be charged with attempted murder.

“To look up here and see the kids walking down here, And I see the police cars… Oh, my god,” Peggy Davis said.

She like many other parents learned about the shooting from their kids who were inside the school when shots rang out.

“I was taking a test and the alarm sounded saying we are in a lockdown and then teachers are taking us to a secure perimeter,” one student told CBS4.

Elizabeth Casillas was on her way to a peace rally for a separate shooting when she learned of what happened.

“My daughter immediately texted me saying she was scared and there were gunshots,” Casillas said.

In a student’s cellphone video shared with CBS4 on Friday, you can hear multiple shots being fired in a parking lot on the south side of the school.

Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson responded to the scene to update the community, “We have three juvenile victims at local hospitals.”

Wilson says they believe it all started as a fight during the lunch hour. Following that altercation, they say a white pickup truck with multiple people inside drove through the lot and started firing.

“These are our kids that are shooting one another,” Wilson said, calling on parents to monitor their children closely.

Her plea comes after six teenagers were shot and injured near Aurora Central High School earlier in the week. While the two shootings have not been connected by investigators, parents are frustrated and demanding action.

“I want more resources on this side of town, stuff that can give them, stuff to focus on rather than what they have available to them which is guns and drugs,” Casillas said.

What they don’t want is for anyone that parent to have to wait to hug their child.

Wilson says an Aurora Public Schools security officer fired his weapon at the truck that pulled before then helping one of the victims by applying a tourniquet.

Investigators say it’s unclear if the security officer hit anyone and while they have not made any arrests, police are currently questioning two people and believe more may be involved.

Aurora police are investigating the possibility the two shootings are connected they are asking anyone with cellphone video or more information to come forward.

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