AURORA, Colo. — Six teenagers were wounded Monday in a drive-by shooting in a park near a suburban Denver high school, but all were expected to survive, police said.
The victims, who range in age from 14 to 18, are all students at Aurora Central High School in Aurora, a diverse city east of Denver, said police chief Vanessa Wilson. She said she needed everyone to be “outraged” by what happened and come forward with any information they might have to help police find those responsible.
Wilson asked neighbors and other bystanders to share any videos or photos from phones or house surveillance systems that might help detectives identify the suspects, who haven’t been apprehended.
Multiple rounds fired from different guns were found at the scene, and it is possible some rounds were fired by someone on foot, she said.
Police officers assigned to the school were the first to respond to the shooting and saved the life of one victim by applying a tourniquet, Wilson said. That student later underwent emergency surgery, she said.
Wilson said she’s relieved the students are expected to survive but said gun violence is a public health crisis.
“There is a violence crisis across the nation right now, and so I think we all need to pay attention,” she said.
Three patients from the shooting were taken to Children’s Hospital Colorado. They were in stable condition and have all been reunited with their families, spokesperson Caitlin Jenney said.
Several students hugged one another outside the school as staff and police ushered students away from the direction of the crime scene. Student Aariah McClain, 15, said she heard gunfire as she was walking near the school’s football field during lunch. She heard four shots at first, so she started walking toward the school. Then she said she heard “a whole lot more,” she said.