Original story updated: September 11, 2025, 5:00 p.m.:
The teen who shot two students at Evergreen High School in Colorado on Wednesday before killing himself has now been publicly identified by police.
Desmond Holly, 16, was a student at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, according to a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, Jacki Kelley. No motive for the shooting has been identified, but Kelley stated that the student had some involvement with an extremist group.
“He was radicalized by some extremist network, and the details of that will be down the road, and we wanted to give you that much about maybe a mindset for him,” Kelley said, per CBS News.
“There’s obviously a lot of work that has to go into looking at his phone, looking ahead at his social media pages, searching his room, searching his backpack. There’s just searching his locker. There are a lot of places to look that we hope will just give us better information as to what he was attempting to do and maybe the why,” Kelly said, adding, “Sometimes we never find out why.”
Police said that many lives were saved because students and staff followed lockdown procedures that were implemented at the school.
“The students and the teachers at the school were amazing. They did their job, they did it well, and lives were saved yesterday because of the actions they took during their lockdown drill,” Kelley said, per CBS News.
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One student remains in critical condition following a shooting at Evergreen High School on Wednesday that left two students injured and the suspected shooter dead, hospital officials reported on Thursday.
The incident occurred at the high school, located at 29300 Buffalo Park Road in Jefferson County, about 28 miles southwest of Denver. A 911 call reporting an active shooter at 12:24 p.m. prompted a rapid response from hundreds of law enforcement officers, including sheriff’s deputies who arrived within minutes, said Jefferson County Sheriff Reggie Marinelli.
An unidentified teenage male student shot two classmates with a handgun before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. One victim remains in critical condition at the same hospital, while the second was stable and transferred to another facility Wednesday night, according to Dr. Brian Blackwood, the hospital’s trauma program medical director. No additional injuries were reported, according to hospital CEO Kevin Cullinan.
“This is the scariest thing you could ever think that could happen and these parents were really frightened and so were the kids,” said Jacki Kelley, sheriff’s office spokesperson, per CNN. “And I know we always say not again, and here we are.”
The shooting, the 47th at a U.S. school this year, forced over 900 students into lockdown as officers cleared the campus room by room. Authorities are investigating the events leading up to the tragedy, including examining the suspect’s locker, car, and social media.
Investigators also searched a home near Corwina Park, about 6.5 miles from the school, starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to Denver7. Lights flashed inside as officers collected evidence, though it’s unclear what was found.
Evergreen High School will remain closed for the week, and eight other schools in the Conifer and Evergreen areas were shuttered Thursday, Jefferson County Public Schools announced. It’s unclear when students can retrieve their belongings.
The tragedy struck a community still scarred by past violence, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
“This kind of violence has absolutely no place in Colorado or anywhere, especially our schools, where kids should feel safe to learn and grow,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who noted state troopers responded and his administration will provide resources for affected families.
For Mike Webb, the grandfather of two 10th-grade twin brothers at the school, the shooting was not his first brush with violence. His ex-wife, Xiaojie Tan, was among eight killed in the 2021 Atlanta-area spa shootings.
“One of the boys was in the main hallway when the shooting broke out, and he just ran,” Webb said, CNN reported. “The other boy was outside of the music room, and he ran too, but he ran into police who had weapons drawn.”
Webb, who spoke with one of his grandsons, said, “I told him none of us should have to go through this. I said this is the world we live in, and thank God you guys are OK.”
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet called the shooting “horrifying” and thanked law enforcement for their swift response. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are assisting with crime scene processing.