Sheriff Identifies Colorado High School Shooter ‘Radicalized By Some Extremist Network’

Investigators said Thursday that they have identified the shooter responsible for the Wednesday afternoon shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado.

The shooting took place at about 12:24 p.m. local time on Wednesday on school grounds and left two students injured, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and news coverage. In an announcement posted to X on Thursday, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office identified the shooter as 16-year-old Desmond Holly.

The sheriff’s office announced in a post to X on Wednesday night that the high school shooter had died from self-inflicted injuries. Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said Thursday morning that they were not yet sure of the shooter’s motive.

“We’re looking at a motive, we don’t have one yet,” Kelley said, CBS News reported. “Sometimes we never find out why.”

Kelley added that the shooter had been “radicalized by some extremist network.”

“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, according to the outlet.

Kelley went on to say that the shooter continued to “fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload, this went on and on and as he did that, he had to continue to find more targets,” CBS News reported. She added that 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 added. “Lots of kids ran, but the ones who didn’t were in lockdown and were being cared for.”

Tracy Dorland, the superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools, said in a statement released Wednesday night that “we cannot pretend this is just another tragic incident.” Dorland added that “the pain of this incident reopens old wounds.”