Parkland father 'upset and angry' over Colorado school shooting: 'Our gun laws are weak'

Kristine Solomon

Two gunmen opened fire at a suburban Denver STEM school on Tuesday, killing one student and injuring eight others. The incident happened less than 10 miles from Columbine High School, which recently mourned the anniversary of its school shooting 20 years ago.

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said in a news conference that two suspects — 18-year-old Devon Erickson and an unidentified female juvenile — have been apprehended in the shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch, which includes grades K-12. Both suspects are believed to be students at the school. The second suspect was initially identified by authorities as a juvenile male.

Spurlock confirmed that eight students, all of whom are at least 15, are being treated at area hospitals, and several are in critical condition. One student, an 18-year-old male named Kendrick Castillo, was killed at the school; the student’s father confirmed his son’s identity to NBC News. Neither suspect was injured.

As an investigation is underway, people are reeling from the tragedy that Spurlock called “a terrible event” and “something that nobody wants to happen in their community.”

Fred Guttenberg, who became an activist against gun violence after his 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was “upset and angry” at the “preventable” shooting.

Guttenberg went on to call the shooting “the new normal” and spoke out against a political climate that allows students and adults to “live in fear of gun violence.” He warned, “we must not become desensitized to these shootings.”

Guttenberg spoke out in February, on the one-year anniversary of the Parkland school shooting, which his son, Jesse, also a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, survived. “I am forever haunted by my memory of that morning, rushing my kids out the door rather than getting one last minute,” he tweeted. “Did I say I love you?”

The next day, Guttenberg slammed President Trump for declaring a national emergency over the border wall on the day after the first anniversary of the tragedy “while ignoring [the] reality of gun violence.”

Seventeen people were killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. last year, and at least a dozen others were injured. The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, was charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder, according to the Naples Daily News, and could face the death penalty if convicted.

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