Denver school shooting suspect found dead near his car
The teenager suspected of shooting two high school administrators on Wednesday morning was found dead near his car, authorities said.
The Park County Coroner’s Office confirmed that a body found in a remote, mountainous area about 50 miles south of Denver belonged to Austin Lyle, the 17-year-old student suspected of shooting two deans at East High School in the Colorado city.
Authorities in the small town of Bailey, Colorado issued a shelter-in-place order to residents as police, sheriff’s deputies, and FBI agents searched the forest for signs of the missing teen.
They eventually found his car abandoned on a rural road around 4.30pm, then found his body a short distance away in the forest.
His cause of death has not yet been determined, and police have not confirmed if they had recovered the weapon used in Wednesday’s shooting.
According to police, Lyle had a safety plan which required him to be searched by school administrators before attending classes each morning.
On Wednesday morning around 9.50am, he pulled out a gun and opened fire on two deans conducting the search.
Lyle was a recent transfer student at East High School. He had previously been expelled from Overland High School in 2021 after posting videos on social media with a gun, CBS News Colorado reported.
After other students reported the videos, Lyle was arrested after he was found to be in possession of a ‘ghost gun’ – an untraceable weapon with the serial numbers filed off.
After the shooting, Lyle fled from the school on foot. He was found over six hours after the incident.
Meanwhile, school administrators confirmed that armed police officers would return to guard East High School when students return for classes.
‘Today was my fourth visit to Denver Health’s Intensive Care Unit due to victims of gun violence,’ Denver Public Schools Superintendent Dr Alex Marrero said. ‘These events should not have happened on my watch or on the Board’s watch.’
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