School Shooting in Colorado Leaves at Least 7 Students Injured

DENVER — At least seven students were injured during a school shooting near Denver on Tuesday afternoon and two suspects were in custody, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

Holly Nicholson-Kluth, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said deputies were going room to room at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado, where a potential third suspect may still be at large. The school serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“We do believe they are juveniles but we don’t know that for sure,” Ms. Nicholson-Kluth said of the suspects. She said she did not know if the suspects were students at the school.

Ms. Nicholson-Kluth said there were “a number of gunshots” fired as law enforcement officers arrived at the school.

“There did seem to be some struggle going on when they got there; we don’t know if that was students or security or officers,” Ms. Nicholson-Kluth said. She said she did not know if anyone had been killed.

Ms. Nicholson-Kluth said she did not have information about the injured students, their ages or the severity of their injuries. Law enforcement officers may find more injured students or additional suspects as they move through the school, she said.

Ms. Nicholson-Kluth said she did not have information about how the suspects were caught.

Local news media showed video footage of tear-stricken parents gathering near the school as at least two air ambulance helicopters arrived at the scene after the shooting, which was reported before 2 p.m.

“It is a very evolving situation,” Ms. Nicholson-Kluth said. “They are still treating it as an active situation.”

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado said the state government was monitoring the situation.

“We are making all of our public safety resources available to assist the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department in their effort to secure the site and evacuate the students,” he said on Twitter. “The heart of all Colorado is with the victims & their families.”

The shooting came less than a month after hundreds of schools in the Denver area were closed as law enforcement searched for a Florida woman who they said had made threats ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting. The woman, Sol Pais, 18, was found dead on April 17 of an apparent self-inflicted shotgun wound in the mountains of Jefferson County, Colo.