Colorado school shooting: Suspect among 3 teens fighting for life

Three teenagers, including the alleged gunman, were left critically injured following a shooting at Evergreen High School in suburban Denver on Wednesday afternoon, authorities confirmed.

The incident was reported shortly after 12.30 pm on school grounds, around 30 miles west of Denver, according to Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley. While the shooting occurred within the school premises, investigators have yet to determine whether it unfolded inside the main building.

Local reports indicate that the suspect is believed to be a student at the school, though it remains unclear what triggered the violence or how the teenager was struck. Kelley confirmed that none of the responding officers discharged their weapons.

The three injured students, all suffering gunshot wounds, were taken to St Anthony Hospital in Lakewood. Hospital chief executive Kevin Cullinan said all were in critical condition.

Multiple injured in mass shootings in two US states

More than 100 police officers from across the Denver metropolitan area were deployed to the scene, as worried parents were directed to a nearby elementary school to reunite with their children.

“This is the scariest thing you could ever imagine happening. Parents were terrified, and so were the children,” Kelley told reporters.

Evergreen High School, which has over 900 students, lies about a mile from the town centre of Evergreen, a community of roughly 9,300 residents, surrounded by wooded hillsides. The episode has revived grim memories of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, also in Jefferson County, in which 14 people were killed. One victim of that attack only recently died from complications linked to her injuries.

Officials stressed that investigators do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the wider community.

The shooting comes at a time when the United States is grappling with a string of recent gun attacks. On Wednesday, Charlie Kirk, an aide to former President Donald Trump, was shot dead during an event at Utah Valley University.

Just weeks earlier, two children were killed and 21 others wounded when gunfire erupted during a Catholic Mass attended by schoolchildren in south Minneapolis.

With IANS inputs