The Smith and Wesson .38 Special revolver that Desmond Holly used in the Sept. 10 attack originally belonged to one of Desmond’s grandparents, the sheriff’s office found, and was kept in a safe in the family’s home.

Desmond’s parents will not be criminally charged in connection with the storage of the gun or their son’s access to it, the sheriff’s office concluded.

Through an attorney, the boy’s parents told investigators on Jan. 23 that the revolver was “rarely seen or used and stored out of sight near the back of a large, locked gun safe,” and that their son “did not have access to the safe, except for brief moments when it was opened by his father,” according to a news release announcing the completion of the investigation.

Douglas Richards, the attorney representing the Evergreen High shooter’s parents, told The Denver Post on Wednesday that he believes Desmond slipped the revolver out of the safe while he was with his father.

“I believe what happened is Desmond and his father were cleaning some of the family firearms, and in a moment when his father was not looking, Desmond took a firearm from the back of the safe that was an heirloom and had not been used by the family, ever,” Richards said. “Because the firearm was never used and was not stored with other firearms in the safe, its disappearance was not noticed until after the tragedy.”

The parents’ DNA was not found on the weapon, which was originally purchased in Florida in 1966.

Richards called the decision not to charge the parents “correct.”

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged, in its announcement, “that this was not the outcome many in our community hoped for.”

An email sent to Evergreen High families Wednesday, alerting them to the sheriff’s completed investigation, said victim advocates would be on campus Thursday alongside the school’s mental health and counseling teams.

Sheriff’s officials noted in their news release that investigators were “unable to speak with” Desmond’s parents and implied the family was uncooperative during the probe into the revolver’s origins.

But Richards said Desmond’s parents spoke with investigators at the hospital as their son was dying and answered written questions and follow-up questions from investigators. Richards said he also offered to sit down with investigators to explain how the gun was stored.

“I have… explained from the outset that the firearm in this case was stolen without the knowledge of Desmond’s parents,” Richards said. “…We have cooperated at every single turn, and it was only earlier this (year) that on my own I decided to just send the DA’s office a letter explaining what occurred, which obviously satisfied them that what we had been saying all along was true — that this was a terrible tragedy that was not foreseeable by anyone in Desmond’s family.”

Desmond died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the end of his attack on the high school.

He roamed the halls for about nine minutes and shot in several areas before leaving the building. Desmond wounded a 14-year-old boy who was not publicly identified and 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone; both were seriously injured but survived. Video of the attack shows that Desmond physically grappled with Silverstone before shooting him.

Officials said Desmond acted alone and was “radicalized” before the attack. His social media profiles suggested he was part of a new wave of online extremism that encourages the use of violence to destroy society. The teenager’s accounts were littered with references to white supremacy, antisemitism and violence, with a particular focus on past mass shootings, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.

In a photo posted on TikTok a few days before the attack, Desmond posed wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Wrath” written in red across the chest — similar to what one of the Columbine attackers wore. The same post also included an image of the 15-year-old who killed two people and injured six more at a Madison, Wisconsin, school in December 2024.

A post on X about an hour before the Sept. 10 attack on Evergreen High showed an image of a hand holding a revolver.

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Mayor Mike Johnston publicly censured Judge Barry Schwartz on Friday and ordered that the judge serve a one-week suspension without pay.

The judge set a $1 bail for a defendant in a 2016 misdemeanor assault case when she appeared in court in August after failing to appear several times.

When the woman’s attorney indicated that she did not have a dollar, Schwartz asked his court staff for cash. A staff member handed him a dollar, which he passed to the defense attorney, according to the public censure and video of the incident obtained by The Denver Post.

“By personally facilitating the posting of bail for a defendant, the mayor finds that Judge Schwartz compromised the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judiciary,” the two-page censure reads. “Regardless of the bond amount, and although Judge Schwartz denies any favoritism towards the defense or antipathy to the prosecution, Judge Schwartz’s conduct openly favored the defendant in open court.”

Schwartz declined to comment Tuesday. His attorney, David Beller, did not immediately return a request for comment.

During the roughly four-minute court hearing in August, public defender Cassandra Weidner told the judge that her client did not have a dollar with which to pay her bail.

“She does not have a dollar on her right now,” Weidner said. “I would ask the court to set a (personal recognizance) bond. But if the court would like to set a $1 bond, I think she can go to an ATM and try and get that to be able to post.”

Schwartz turned away from the microphone and spoke with someone off-screen to his left, the video shows. Then he turned back to the proceedings.

“We have a dollar,” the judge said.

“Oh, great,” Weidner responded. “Thank you, your honor.”

It was not immediately clear why Schwartz did not set the woman’s bail as a personal recognizance bond, which would have allowed her to leave jail without paying any money. No one in the courtroom objected when the judge passed the dollar along, the video shows.

Johnston wrote in the public censure that the woman’s case was a “serious concern” because she was charged with assault and skipped mandatory court appearances four different times.

“I hear every day from Denverites that they expect our laws to be enforced,” the mayor wrote. “It is a conviction I share and expect to be honored by members of the judiciary.”

Schwartz was appointed as a county court judge in 2017. A 2024 evaluation by the Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation noted that he was known as a “fair, kind and respectful judge,” and that he was “working to ensure that his empathy for defendants does not convey favoritism.”

Thirty-seven people were killed in Denver in 2025, the third-lowest number on record for any year since 1990, according to records kept by the Denver Police Department. Only in 2000 and 2014 did the city see fewer annual homicides, with 33 and 31 people killed in those years.

“This is a historic success for the city and we are thrilled about it,” Mayor Mike Johnston said Friday, characterizing the decline in violence as “beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.”

The 37 homicides in 2025 mark a 47% decrease from the 70 homicides the city experienced in 2024, and a 62% drop from the decades-high 96 homicides in 2021.

Non-fatal shootings also declined. As of mid-December 2024, 228 people had been shot in 194 shootings across Denver. That fell roughly 40% to 137 people shot in 114 incidents by mid-December 2025, according to police data.

The drop in gun violence came amid overall declining violent crime and property crime in the city, and continued a years-long trend that’s been seen both locally and nationwide as crime fell from historic highs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Denver, all crime dropped about 5% from 2024 to 2025, according to the police data.

Denver saw about a 6% decline in violent crime and about a 13% drop in property crime, according to the police department.

But the city saw an increase in what it calls “other crimes,” which covers a broad swath of offenses, including, among other crimes, white collar offenses, public disorder and indecency, possessing or selling drugs, simple assault and domestic violence assault. Such crimes rose about 5% citywide.

Larceny, which includes retail theft and other types of theft, rose about 6%, a jump that Denver police Chief Ron Thomas attributed to increased reporting as the department ramped up its focus on theft enforcement in 2025 and encouraged business owners to call police about retail theft.

“That led to a higher number being identified for us, which is still helpful; it still helps us understand where we need to focus our resources,” Thomas said.

The city saw an 18% drop in retail theft in two shopping centers — Quebec Square and the Shops at Northfield — where officers focused attention on theft as part of a pilot program in 2025.

Johnston hopes to see retail theft drop across the city during 2026, he said.

“We think over time we will get to steadier lower numbers,” he said.

Homicides down

Denver’s homicides in 2025 were not driven by gang violence, domestic violence or youth violence.

The city saw just two gang-related homicides and three domestic-violence homicides in 2025 (down from five and 12 in 2024, respectively). Only two children — a 16-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy — were killed, down from seven in 2024, police records show.

Through mid-December, another eight children, all between the ages of 15 and 17, were shot but survived, police records show. That’s down from 26 children shot and wounded in 2024.

Most homicides in 2025 were connected to interpersonal disputes, arguments or confrontations between people known to each other about a variety of topics, Thomas said. Investigators discovered a previous connection between the victims and suspects in 19 cases, police data shows.

In nine cases, the victim was killed by a stranger. In another nine cases, the relationship remains unclear.

Suspects shot their victims to death in 65% of homicides and used a knife in 19% of attacks, police data shows.

Thomas credited a variety of police strategies for the drop in homicides and shootings, and noted the city’s focus on particular geographic areas that become hotspots for violence and officers’ connections with community organizations that work to head off violence before it occurs.

“Them doing violence reduction and being out in the community and speaking to young people all the time averts violent crime that we can’t even quantify,” Thomas said.

Adrien Williams, director of violence intervention at Life-Line Colorado, a nonprofit focused on violence reduction, noticed the slower pace of gun violence during 2025. But violence comes in waves, he said, and he is already bracing for the next wave to hit.

“I feel like a lot of the heavy hitters that were out there this past year, they are either incarcerated now, or unfortunately, they’re dead,” he said. “And I feel like maybe it’s going to die out and be slow for a while, and then we will experience little brothers and sisters who grow up and want to take part of what their siblings were part of, or that they started.”

‘The work is not done’

Thomas hopes to continue the slower pace of violence in 2026.

“The challenge is to try to see even further reductions; obviously, the work is not done,” Thomas said. “We have identified some effective strategies and we want to continue with those strategies, continue to look at the numbers and see if there are other things we can impact.”

The chief also expects the department to focus on unsafe drivers over the next year, as well as continuing officers’ focus on public drug use and so-called “quality of life” crimes.

“Seeing people that are drag-racing or riding wheelies down the street or racing around town without consequence leads to a sense of lawlessness that I’m hopeful we can address,” Thomas said.

Johnston said the decrease in violent crime should allow officers to pay more attention to lower-level offenses in the coming year. He wants to see the downward crime trend continue through 2026.

“Our expectation and plan is not just to keep it low, but to try to bring it lower,” he said.

The FBI “opened an assessment into a social media account user whose identity was unknown and who was discussing the planning of a mass shooting with threats non-specific in nature,” the agency said in a statement.

“During the assessment investigation, the identity of the account user remained unknown, and thus there was no probable cause for arrest or additional law enforcement action at the federal level,” the statement continued.

Evergreen High School shooter’s online footprint reflects new wave of extremism, experts say

The investigation, first reported by 9News, was ongoing before Wednesday’s attack at the high school in the Jefferson County foothills, the FBI said.

The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors online threats and extremism, tipped the FBI to 16-year-old Desmond Holly’s accounts, Oren Segal, the organization’s senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence, said in a statement Monday. The ADL regularly shares information with law enforcement.

“We shared profiles and activity at the time with law enforcement for actions they deemed necessary based on what was available at the time,” Segal said in the statement. “We have since learned those profiles belonged to the individual responsible for the shooting in Evergreen.”

The teen shooter’s social media accounts showed that he was likely involved in a form of online extremism that calls for violence as a way to destroy society, experts told The Denver Post last week. His accounts displayed a mix of white supremacy, antisemitism and a fascination with violence and mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

The shooter’s social media footprint fits into a new wave of online extremism and suggests he was involved in nihilistic violent extremist networks, which often aim to exploit children and teenagers and push them toward violence, experts told The Post. The 16-year-old likely had an interest in mass shootings and then sought out the online extremist spaces, where he learned the cultural script for carrying out such an attack, experts said.

The teenager collected tactical gear and talked online about getting a GoPro camera. He posted multiple photos on TikTok showing a T-shirt that he apparently designed to be similar to one worn by one of the Columbine attackers, and, in a selfie, mimicked another school shooter’s pose.

On an X account linked to the teen, a post about an hour before the shooting showed an image of a hand holding a revolver — the type of gun used in the Evergreen High attack.

The 16-year-old, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, acted alone, Karlyn Tilley, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said Monday. There was no second shooter during the attack at Evergreen High, despite persistent rumors of one, she said.

“We are 100% confident that he was acting alone,” she said.

Some students who were in lockdown inside the school believed there were two shooters, in part because people banged on the doors to their hiding places and claimed to be police officers.

Those people banging on doors may, in fact, have been law enforcement and first responders, Tilley said Monday.

“Some of the law enforcement likely did pound on doors and say, ‘Hey, we are law enforcement, let us in,’” she said. “But what we try to train people on is that they do not unlock the doors for anyone, no matter what they are saying, and that eventually we will get to those doors with keys.”

An exception to keeping the doors shut in an active-shooter scenario would be if students inside were injured or needed immediate help, she noted. Authorities previously said much of the shooter’s attack was captured on surveillance video.

On Thursday, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said that closed, locked doors inside the school likely prevented the shooter from reaching additional victims.

The two students wounded in the shooting, including 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone, remained hospitalized Monday. The second student has not been publicly identified. One student was in critical but stable condition, and the other was in serious condition.

Investigators believe the 16-year-old opened fire with a revolver. Tilley on Monday declined to answer questions about how the 16-year-old accessed the gun he used in the attack or whether his parents or others could face criminal charges, citing the ongoing investigation.

Classes at Evergreen High School remain canceled this week, and Jeffco Public Schools officials have not confirmed when the school will reopen. But they say several security measures — including posting a full-time school resource officer from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office — will be implemented before classes resume, according to a letter sent Sunday to Evergreen High students, staff and families.

“Over the past several days, our Evergreen community has shown incredible strength and care for one another,” principal Skyler Artes and superintendent Tracy Dorland wrote in the joint letter. “As we look ahead, we know that what matters most right now is creating a clear and thoughtful path forward for our students, staff and families, while prioritizing your mental health and wellbeing.”

Artes said she will release the plan for students to return to school by Sunday.

Denver Post staff writer Lauren Penington contributed to this report.

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The FBI “opened an assessment into a social media account user whose identity was unknown and who was discussing the planning of a mass shooting with threats non-specific in nature,” the agency said in a statement.

“During the assessment investigation, the identity of the account user remained unknown, and thus there was no probable cause for arrest or additional law enforcement action at the federal level,” the statement continued.

Evergreen High School shooter’s online footprint reflects new wave of extremism, experts say

The investigation, first reported by 9News, was ongoing before Wednesday’s attack at the high school in the Jefferson County foothills, the FBI said.

The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors online threats and extremism, tipped the FBI to 16-year-old Desmond Holly’s accounts, Oren Segal, the organization’s senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence, said in a statement Monday. The ADL regularly shares information with law enforcement.

“We shared profiles and activity at the time with law enforcement for actions they deemed necessary based on what was available at the time,” Segal said in the statement. “We have since learned those profiles belonged to the individual responsible for the shooting in Evergreen.”

The teen shooter’s social media accounts showed that he was likely involved in a form of online extremism that calls for violence as a way to destroy society, experts told The Denver Post last week. His accounts displayed a mix of white supremacy, antisemitism and a fascination with violence and mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

The shooter’s social media footprint fits into a new wave of online extremism and suggests he was involved in nihilistic violent extremist networks, which often aim to exploit children and teenagers and push them toward violence, experts told The Post. The 16-year-old likely had an interest in mass shootings and then sought out the online extremist spaces, where he learned the cultural script for carrying out such an attack, experts said.

The teenager collected tactical gear and talked online about getting a GoPro camera. He posted multiple photos on TikTok showing a T-shirt that he apparently designed to be similar to one worn by one of the Columbine attackers, and, in a selfie, mimicked another school shooter’s pose.

On an X account linked to the teen, a post about an hour before the shooting showed an image of a hand holding a revolver — the type of gun used in the Evergreen High attack.

The 16-year-old, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, acted alone, Karlyn Tilley, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said Monday. There was no second shooter during the attack at Evergreen High, despite persistent rumors of one, she said.

“We are 100% confident that he was acting alone,” she said.

Some students who were in lockdown inside the school believed there were two shooters, in part because people banged on the doors to their hiding places and claimed to be police officers.

Those people banging on doors may, in fact, have been law enforcement and first responders, Tilley said Monday.

“Some of the law enforcement likely did pound on doors and say, ‘Hey, we are law enforcement, let us in,’” she said. “But what we try to train people on is that they do not unlock the doors for anyone, no matter what they are saying, and that eventually we will get to those doors with keys.”

An exception to keeping the doors shut in an active-shooter scenario would be if students inside were injured or needed immediate help, she noted. Authorities previously said much of the shooter’s attack was captured on surveillance video.

On Thursday, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said that closed, locked doors inside the school likely prevented the shooter from reaching additional victims.

The two students wounded in the shooting, including 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone, remained hospitalized Monday. The second student has not been publicly identified. One student was in critical but stable condition, and the other was in serious condition.

Investigators believe the 16-year-old opened fire with a revolver. Tilley on Monday declined to answer questions about how the 16-year-old accessed the gun he used in the attack or whether his parents or others could face criminal charges, citing the ongoing investigation.

Classes at Evergreen High School remain canceled this week, and Jeffco Public Schools officials have not confirmed when the school will reopen. But they say several security measures — including posting a full-time school resource officer from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office — will be implemented before classes resume, according to a letter sent Sunday to Evergreen High students, staff and families.

“Over the past several days, our Evergreen community has shown incredible strength and care for one another,” principal Skyler Artes and superintendent Tracy Dorland wrote in the joint letter. “As we look ahead, we know that what matters most right now is creating a clear and thoughtful path forward for our students, staff and families, while prioritizing your mental health and wellbeing.”

Artes said she will release the plan for students to return to school by Sunday.

Denver Post staff writer Lauren Penington contributed to this report.

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Kai Taylor, a 15-year-old sophomore, was eating lunch with friends outside the school in the Jefferson County foothills when he got a frantic call from his twin sister asking if he was OK.

He said he laughed and told her he was fine, but she grew more serious, saying there was an active shooter at the school and she needed to know if he was hurt.

Kai’s heart dropped, he said. Then he saw his peers running.

Desmond Holly, a 16-year-old student at Evergreen High who had been “radicalized,” shot two of his schoolmates that afternoon before turning the gun on himself, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said at a Thursday morning news briefing.

Armed with a revolver, Desmond systematically reloaded and fired as he wandered the three-level school, trying to find new targets, Kelley said. His exact path through Evergreen High is not yet known, she said, but the teen shooter’s movements were captured by the school’s surveillance cameras. That video is being reviewed by investigators.

The school’s lockdown procedures prevented the shooter from reaching many of the students, but two were critically injured and are being treated at Denver-area hospitals, Kelley said.

The family of one of the victims, 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone, issued a statement through the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon requesting privacy.

“The family appreciates the community’s concern and support, but as we remain focused on our loved one’s recovery, we respectfully request privacy as we continue to heal and navigate the road ahead,” the statement said.

Sheriff’s officials have not yet publicly identified the second victim, or said how how many times the students were shot or where they were injured.

Paramedics took both victims and Desmond to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, where Desmond later died from his injuries.

One victim remained in critical condition at St. Anthony Hospital, Dr. Brian Blackwood said in a Thursday morning news briefing. The second victim was transferred Wednesday evening to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, where that student remained in critical condition Thursday, hospital officials said in a statement.

One victim was shot inside the school and the other was shot in the street behind Evergreen High while attempting to flee, Kelley said.

‘I was so scared’

Kai was one of the dozens of students who fled the high school. He said he took off running toward a nearby neighborhood. He heard a gunshot and willed himself to run faster.

“I felt like I was going limp,” he said. “I felt like I was going to fall over. I was so scared.”

His twin sister had run in the opposite direction. Kai felt panicked that he had lost track of her.

“I was really worried for my sister’s safety,” he said.

He and his friends sheltered in the home of a nearby neighbor.

Kai is accustomed to annual active shooting drills. He never expected to have to use the information he learned.

“I felt like I was prepared, but it’s just so different when it actually happens,” he said.

Kai stood silently with his bike on Thursday as news crews packed up their equipment near his school.

“I just thought I needed to come down here and see it,” he said. “My heart beats when I look at the school. I feel so nervous to go back. It almost doesn’t feel real. It’s like a dream.”

‘Radicalized through an extremist network’

Desmond was “radicalized through an extremist network” before the attack, Kelley said. She did not elaborate on the type of radicalization, but said it was shown through his phone and belongings.

Authorities are still determining Desmond’s motive and said he brought a significant amount of ammunition with him to the school, where he fired in several areas with a revolver. Kelley said she did not know he total number of shots he fired.

“The reason we have so many crime scene areas inside is because we have windows shot out, we have lockers that were shot up, we’re finding spent rounds, unspent rounds,” Kelley said. “It’s a huge area.”

Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded Wednesday to Evergreen High School at 29300 Buffalo Park Road. Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies were on the scene just minutes after the first 911 call.

A school resource officer was not at Evergreen High when the shooting started. Kelley said the school’s full-time deputy is on medical leave, and multiple part-time officers are filling in the gap.

The officer working Wednesday was dispatched to a nearby accident between 10:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., a routine task for school resource officers, Kelley said. The officer did not break policy, she said.

Desmond lived with his family in a sprawling mountain home, tucked away on a private lane near Kittridge, property records show. His parents did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday. Kelley said investigators will explore how Desmond accessed the gun and whether his parents could face criminal charges.

Law enforcement searched the home Wednesday evening, but the details of what they found inside were not available Thursday, Kelley said. Investigators also have warrants to search Desmond’s phone and locker.

“We can’t say yet whether this feels more targeted or more random,” Kelley said. “But… it seems like it could be a bit of both.”

School closed, resource center opened

Evergreen High School will be closed the rest of the week, Jefferson County Public Schools announced. Kelley said the school needs aesthetic renovations before students can come back, including repairing broken windows, fixing lockers with bullet holes, and cleaning up “fluids.”

Another eight schools in the Conifer and Evergreen areas were also closed Thursday.

A resource and information center will operate for two days out of Bergen Meadow Elementary’s old building at 1928 S. Hiwan Drive, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. That building was the reunification point for families and Evergreen students on Wednesday.

The center will host victim advocates, mental health professionals, victim compensation representatives and school personnel from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, sheriff’s officials said. It’s open to all students, faculty, families and community members.

It’s unclear when students will be able to re-enter the high school to retrieve their personal belongings, but that information will be available at the elementary school, sheriff’s officials said.

Anyone who witnessed the shooting and hasn’t yet spoken with investigators is asked to come to the resource center to do so, according to the sheriff’s office.

“We will do what we can as a community to heal from this,” Kelley said. “It really sucks that we’re here again.”

Suspect dead, 2 students injured in shooting at Colorado high school

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Kai Taylor, a 15-year-old sophomore, was eating lunch with friends outside the school in the Jefferson County foothills when he got a frantic call from his twin sister asking if he was OK.

He said he laughed and told her he was fine, but she grew more serious, saying there was an active shooter at the school and she needed to know if he was hurt.

Kai’s heart dropped, he said. Then he saw his peers running.

Desmond Holly, a 16-year-old student at Evergreen High who had been “radicalized,” shot two of his schoolmates that afternoon before turning the gun on himself, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said at a Thursday morning news briefing.

Armed with a revolver, Desmond systematically reloaded and fired as he wandered the three-level school, trying to find new targets, Kelley said. His exact path through Evergreen High is not yet known, she said, but the teen shooter’s movements were captured by the school’s surveillance cameras. That video is being reviewed by investigators.

The school’s lockdown procedures prevented the shooter from reaching many of the students, but two were critically injured and are being treated at Denver-area hospitals, Kelley said.

The family of one of the victims, 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone, issued a statement through the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon requesting privacy.

“The family appreciates the community’s concern and support, but as we remain focused on our loved one’s recovery, we respectfully request privacy as we continue to heal and navigate the road ahead,” the statement said.

Sheriff’s officials have not yet publicly identified the second victim, or said how how many times the students were shot or where they were injured.

Paramedics took both victims and Desmond to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, where Desmond later died from his injuries.

One victim remained in critical condition at St. Anthony Hospital, Dr. Brian Blackwood said in a Thursday morning news briefing. The second victim was transferred Wednesday evening to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, where that student remained in critical condition Thursday, hospital officials said in a statement.

One victim was shot inside the school and the other was shot in the street behind Evergreen High while attempting to flee, Kelley said.

‘I was so scared’

Kai was one of the dozens of students who fled the high school. He said he took off running toward a nearby neighborhood. He heard a gunshot and willed himself to run faster.

“I felt like I was going limp,” he said. “I felt like I was going to fall over. I was so scared.”

His twin sister had run in the opposite direction. Kai felt panicked that he had lost track of her.

“I was really worried for my sister’s safety,” he said.

He and his friends sheltered in the home of a nearby neighbor.

Kai is accustomed to annual active shooting drills. He never expected to have to use the information he learned.

“I felt like I was prepared, but it’s just so different when it actually happens,” he said.

Kai stood silently with his bike on Thursday as news crews packed up their equipment near his school.

“I just thought I needed to come down here and see it,” he said. “My heart beats when I look at the school. I feel so nervous to go back. It almost doesn’t feel real. It’s like a dream.”

‘Radicalized through an extremist network’

Desmond was “radicalized through an extremist network” before the attack, Kelley said. She did not elaborate on the type of radicalization, but said it was shown through his phone and belongings.

Authorities are still determining Desmond’s motive and said he brought a significant amount of ammunition with him to the school, where he fired in several areas with a revolver. Kelley said she did not know he total number of shots he fired.

“The reason we have so many crime scene areas inside is because we have windows shot out, we have lockers that were shot up, we’re finding spent rounds, unspent rounds,” Kelley said. “It’s a huge area.”

Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded Wednesday to Evergreen High School at 29300 Buffalo Park Road. Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies were on the scene just minutes after the first 911 call.

A school resource officer was not at Evergreen High when the shooting started. Kelley said the school’s full-time deputy is on medical leave, and multiple part-time officers are filling in the gap.

The officer working Wednesday was dispatched to a nearby accident between 10:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., a routine task for school resource officers, Kelley said. The officer did not break policy, she said.

Desmond lived with his family in a sprawling mountain home, tucked away on a private lane near Kittridge, property records show. His parents did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday. Kelley said investigators will explore how Desmond accessed the gun and whether his parents could face criminal charges.

Law enforcement searched the home Wednesday evening, but the details of what they found inside were not available Thursday, Kelley said. Investigators also have warrants to search Desmond’s phone and locker.

“We can’t say yet whether this feels more targeted or more random,” Kelley said. “But… it seems like it could be a bit of both.”

School closed, resource center opened

Evergreen High School will be closed the rest of the week, Jefferson County Public Schools announced. Kelley said the school needs aesthetic renovations before students can come back, including repairing broken windows, fixing lockers with bullet holes, and cleaning up “fluids.”

Another eight schools in the Conifer and Evergreen areas were also closed Thursday.

A resource and information center will operate for two days out of Bergen Meadow Elementary’s old building at 1928 S. Hiwan Drive, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. That building was the reunification point for families and Evergreen students on Wednesday.

The center will host victim advocates, mental health professionals, victim compensation representatives and school personnel from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, sheriff’s officials said. It’s open to all students, faculty, families and community members.

It’s unclear when students will be able to re-enter the high school to retrieve their personal belongings, but that information will be available at the elementary school, sheriff’s officials said.

Anyone who witnessed the shooting and hasn’t yet spoken with investigators is asked to come to the resource center to do so, according to the sheriff’s office.

“We will do what we can as a community to heal from this,” Kelley said. “It really sucks that we’re here again.”

Suspect dead, 2 students injured in shooting at Colorado high school

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All three students were transported to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, where one was pronounced dead Wednesday evening, hospital spokesperson Lindsay Foster said.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the student who died was the suspected shooter, but did not release the teen’s name. One of the wounded students remained in critical condition.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded to the high school at 29300 Buffalo Park Road after a 911 caller reported an active shooting at 12:24 p.m., Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said at a briefing Wednesday.

Sheriff’s officials confirmed Wednesday evening that the suspected shooter, a juvenile male student armed with a handgun, sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No additional information about the suspect was available.

“This is the scariest thing that could ever happen, and these parents were really frightened, and so were the kids,” Kelley said. “And I know we say ‘never again,’ and here we are.”

It’s not clear where the shooting started, but investigators have found areas inside and outside of the school where shots were fired, Kelley said. She said the suspect used a handgun in the shooting, but she could not be more specific about the type of weapon.

Jefferson County Sheriff Reggie Marinelli said deputies were on scene in two minutes. There was no school resource officer on the campus at the time of the shooting, but Jeff Pierson, Jeffco Public Schools’ executive director of school safety, confirmed such an officer is assigned to Evergreen High School. He could not say whether the officer was working at the campus Wednesday.

Kelley said the investigation will focus on the suspect, including his locker, car, home and social media, to learn more about him.

Dr. Brian Blackwood, the trauma program medical director at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital, had said earlier that two of the wounded students were in critical condition and the third suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. He did not specify the condition of the suspect at the time.

Kelley said investigators had identified and had been able to have at least initial conversations with all three students who were shot, including the suspect, as well as the suspect’s parents, who were with him at the hospital. Blackwood said the families of all the students had been updated about their conditions.

Investigators had not been able to interview the shooter sufficiently to determine whether he knew the other two victims, Kelley said, adding that they would have to speak to hundreds of students to piece together what happened.

“This investigation will go on, we don’t know how long, it’s possible it will last days,” Marinelli said. “This was our people. This was our kids.”

Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent Tracy Dorland said she was devastated and angry about the shooting.

“No child should ever face this kind of danger and no community should be asked to absorb this kind of pain,” she said Wednesday evening.

‘I saw him shooting right at us’

Ethan Ramirez, 16, told The Denver Post he was eating lunch in Evergreen High’s cafeteria when an announcement on the intercom caught his attention, although he couldn’t quite hear the message.

Around him, other students started to walk out of the cafeteria. Then he heard a loud bang, he said, and he started to run.

“I heard gunshots right behind me,” he said. He sprinted out of the school, running as hard as he could. He crowded through a door with scores of other students, he said. As he ran along a dirt path, he looked over at the school, he said, and saw a person he thought was the shooter.

“He was walking, he wasn’t running,” Ethan said. “…I saw him shooting right at us.”

He and other students ran into a neighborhood, where they hid inside a stranger’s home, in a bathroom. The neighbor pulled out two guns to protect them, Ethan said. After a couple of hours, police officers collected them, he said.

“I’m a little shaken up. I’m pretty scared,” he said. He’s not sure he will feel safe back at school. “I’m paranoid now that something is going to happen,” he said.

Eighteen students who fled from the shooting took shelter at a home just down the road, after an initial group of them pounded on the door asking for help, resident Don Cygan told 9News.

Cygan, a retired educator familiar with lockdown trainings to prepare for possible shootings, said he took down the names of all the students and the names of the parents who later arrived there to pick them up. His wife, a retired nurse, was able to calm the teens down and treat them for shock, he said.

“I hope they feel like they ran to the right house,” he said.

‘The world we live in’

Students collected by their parents left the reunification site at Bergen Meadow Elementary, 1928 S. Hiwan Drive, in a trickle, some arm in arm, some sobbing. Some spoke about what they saw, what they did. Parents told children: “You’re OK.”

Emily Heidarsson, a 17-year-old senior, went home for lunch about 30 minutes before the attack, she said. She hugged friends in tears at the reunification site.

“It was just a normal (expletive) day and now it’s gone,” she said. “I was so close to not going home (for lunch). And if I didn’t, I could have died.”

She said the students haven’t had a lockdown drill yet this year — one that had been scheduled was canceled for a medical emergency. Her mom, Ivy Heidarsson, said her daughter came to the site because she was worried about her friends.

“You feel so helpless,” she said. “There is nothing we can do.”

Wendy Nueman’s 15-year-old daughter, a sophomore at the school, didn’t answer her phone right away after the shooting. When she finally called, it was from a borrowed phone.

“She just said she was OK. She couldn’t hardly speak,” Nueman said, holding back tears. She gathered that her daughter ran from the school.

“It’s super scary,” she said. “We feel like we live in a little bubble here. Obviously, no one is immune.”

Deborah Weingarten, who has three students at Evergreen High, said she made the normally 50-minute drive from her job in Denver to Evergreen in about 20 minutes, speeding up into the foothills as she watched ambulances come down.

One of her sons heard loud pops and ran away, she said. Another was stuck in the lockdown at the school. He was on the first bus of students brought to the reunification center.

“We’ve been dying inside just waiting,” she said, fighting back tears.

Tasha Williams, mom to a freshman student, said her daughter called about the shooter, frantic and searching for her friend. Williams told her to stay calm and stay put.

“I always taught them like if you hear anything, get down and pretend you are dead,” Williams said. “I shouldn’t have to do that. But that is the world we live in.”

Parents lined up on a sidewalk outside Bergen Meadow Elementary, waiting to reunite with their children, exchanging hugs and quiet conversation. Slowly, buses full of students trickled in. When the school sent out an emergency alert phone call, the simultaneous rings echoed up and down the line.

Following the first reports of the shooting, Blackwood, the St. Anthony’s trauma director, said the Lakewood hospital had about five to 10 minutes to prepare to receive a then-unknown number of victims from Evergreen.

“We weren’t sure exactly how many patients, so we prepared for multiple, and that allows us to take care of the patients very quickly when they came in,” he said, noting the patients arrived at the hospital simultaneously.

“I try and be straight and to the point, because I don’t want to beat around the bush about what’s going on,” the doctor said about speaking to the students’ families. “But, you know, as a father myself, I can put myself in their shoes, and kind of understand what they’re going through, and I just try and be supportive and caring to them in this time.”

The doctor noted that an Aug. 6 mass-shooting training involving the hospital and area law enforcement helped the staff to be as prepared as possible for Wednesday’s events.

‘Outraged that this continues to happen’

Dorland, the Jeffco superintendent, said she would do everything in her power to make sure her schools were safe.

“But we cannot do it alone,” she said. “Safety requires vigilance, partnership and the unflinching belief that our children deserve better. The nation is tired of statements filled with platitudes and thoughts and prayers.”

In a statement, Gov. Jared Polis said he was carefully monitoring the situation at Evergreen High and Colorado State Patrol troopers were on scene to support local law enforcement.

“Students should be able to attend school safely and without fear across our state and nation. We are all praying for the victims and the entire community,” Polis said.

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, whose district includes Evergreen, said in a statement she was “shocked and heartbroken” to learn about the shooting.

“I’m hopeful that law enforcement is able to intervene and ensure all of our kids come home safe,” Pettersen said. “We are in communication with local law officials and will be there to support the Evergreen community.”

Law enforcement had cleared the high school as of 3:43 p.m., the sheriff’s office said.

Agents from the Denver division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI’s Denver field office also responded, officials said.

The shooting at Evergreen High is at least the seventh school shooting in Colorado since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School that killed 13 students and one teacher.

Before Wednesday, the sites of recent school shootings in the state included Denver’s East High School, where a student shot two administrators in 2023 as they searched him for weapons and killed himself after fleeing the scene; and Aurora’s Hinkley High School, where a student shot and injured three other students in 2021.

“No student, no educator, no family should ever have to endure the terror and trauma of gun violence in a place of learning,” said Brooke Williams, president of the Jefferson County Education Association, and Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, in a joint statement. “As leaders of Colorado’s educators, we are outraged that this continues to happen in our schools. … Families send their children to classrooms trusting they will return home safely each day.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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All three students were transported to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, where one was pronounced dead Wednesday evening, hospital spokesperson Lindsay Foster said.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the student who died was the suspected shooter, but did not release the teen’s name. One of the wounded students remained in critical condition.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded to the high school at 29300 Buffalo Park Road after a 911 caller reported an active shooting at 12:24 p.m., Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said at a briefing Wednesday.

Sheriff’s officials confirmed Wednesday evening that the suspected shooter, a juvenile male student armed with a handgun, sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No additional information about the suspect was available.

“This is the scariest thing that could ever happen, and these parents were really frightened, and so were the kids,” Kelley said. “And I know we say ‘never again,’ and here we are.”

It’s not clear where the shooting started, but investigators have found areas inside and outside of the school where shots were fired, Kelley said. She said the suspect used a handgun in the shooting, but she could not be more specific about the type of weapon.

Jefferson County Sheriff Reggie Marinelli said deputies were on scene in two minutes. There was no school resource officer on the campus at the time of the shooting, but Jeff Pierson, Jeffco Public Schools’ executive director of school safety, confirmed such an officer is assigned to Evergreen High School. He could not say whether the officer was working at the campus Wednesday.

Kelley said the investigation will focus on the suspect, including his locker, car, home and social media, to learn more about him.

Dr. Brian Blackwood, the trauma program medical director at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital, had said earlier that two of the wounded students were in critical condition and the third suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. He did not specify the condition of the suspect at the time.

Kelley said investigators had identified and had been able to have at least initial conversations with all three students who were shot, including the suspect, as well as the suspect’s parents, who were with him at the hospital. Blackwood said the families of all the students had been updated about their conditions.

Investigators had not been able to interview the shooter sufficiently to determine whether he knew the other two victims, Kelley said, adding that they would have to speak to hundreds of students to piece together what happened.

“This investigation will go on, we don’t know how long, it’s possible it will last days,” Marinelli said. “This was our people. This was our kids.”

Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent Tracy Dorland said she was devastated and angry about the shooting.

“No child should ever face this kind of danger and no community should be asked to absorb this kind of pain,” she said Wednesday evening.

‘I saw him shooting right at us’

Ethan Ramirez, 16, told The Denver Post he was eating lunch in Evergreen High’s cafeteria when an announcement on the intercom caught his attention, although he couldn’t quite hear the message.

Around him, other students started to walk out of the cafeteria. Then he heard a loud bang, he said, and he started to run.

“I heard gunshots right behind me,” he said. He sprinted out of the school, running as hard as he could. He crowded through a door with scores of other students, he said. As he ran along a dirt path, he looked over at the school, he said, and saw a person he thought was the shooter.

“He was walking, he wasn’t running,” Ethan said. “…I saw him shooting right at us.”

He and other students ran into a neighborhood, where they hid inside a stranger’s home, in a bathroom. The neighbor pulled out two guns to protect them, Ethan said. After a couple of hours, police officers collected them, he said.

“I’m a little shaken up. I’m pretty scared,” he said. He’s not sure he will feel safe back at school. “I’m paranoid now that something is going to happen,” he said.

Eighteen students who fled from the shooting took shelter at a home just down the road, after an initial group of them pounded on the door asking for help, resident Don Cygan told 9News.

Cygan, a retired educator familiar with lockdown trainings to prepare for possible shootings, said he took down the names of all the students and the names of the parents who later arrived there to pick them up. His wife, a retired nurse, was able to calm the teens down and treat them for shock, he said.

“I hope they feel like they ran to the right house,” he said.

‘The world we live in’

Students collected by their parents left the reunification site at Bergen Meadow Elementary, 1928 S. Hiwan Drive, in a trickle, some arm in arm, some sobbing. Some spoke about what they saw, what they did. Parents told children: “You’re OK.”

Emily Heidarsson, a 17-year-old senior, went home for lunch about 30 minutes before the attack, she said. She hugged friends in tears at the reunification site.

“It was just a normal (expletive) day and now it’s gone,” she said. “I was so close to not going home (for lunch). And if I didn’t, I could have died.”

She said the students haven’t had a lockdown drill yet this year — one that had been scheduled was canceled for a medical emergency. Her mom, Ivy Heidarsson, said her daughter came to the site because she was worried about her friends.

“You feel so helpless,” she said. “There is nothing we can do.”

Wendy Nueman’s 15-year-old daughter, a sophomore at the school, didn’t answer her phone right away after the shooting. When she finally called, it was from a borrowed phone.

“She just said she was OK. She couldn’t hardly speak,” Nueman said, holding back tears. She gathered that her daughter ran from the school.

“It’s super scary,” she said. “We feel like we live in a little bubble here. Obviously, no one is immune.”

Deborah Weingarten, who has three students at Evergreen High, said she made the normally 50-minute drive from her job in Denver to Evergreen in about 20 minutes, speeding up into the foothills as she watched ambulances come down.

One of her sons heard loud pops and ran away, she said. Another was stuck in the lockdown at the school. He was on the first bus of students brought to the reunification center.

“We’ve been dying inside just waiting,” she said, fighting back tears.

Tasha Williams, mom to a freshman student, said her daughter called about the shooter, frantic and searching for her friend. Williams told her to stay calm and stay put.

“I always taught them like if you hear anything, get down and pretend you are dead,” Williams said. “I shouldn’t have to do that. But that is the world we live in.”

Parents lined up on a sidewalk outside Bergen Meadow Elementary, waiting to reunite with their children, exchanging hugs and quiet conversation. Slowly, buses full of students trickled in. When the school sent out an emergency alert phone call, the simultaneous rings echoed up and down the line.

Following the first reports of the shooting, Blackwood, the St. Anthony’s trauma director, said the Lakewood hospital had about five to 10 minutes to prepare to receive a then-unknown number of victims from Evergreen.

“We weren’t sure exactly how many patients, so we prepared for multiple, and that allows us to take care of the patients very quickly when they came in,” he said, noting the patients arrived at the hospital simultaneously.

“I try and be straight and to the point, because I don’t want to beat around the bush about what’s going on,” the doctor said about speaking to the students’ families. “But, you know, as a father myself, I can put myself in their shoes, and kind of understand what they’re going through, and I just try and be supportive and caring to them in this time.”

The doctor noted that an Aug. 6 mass-shooting training involving the hospital and area law enforcement helped the staff to be as prepared as possible for Wednesday’s events.

‘Outraged that this continues to happen’

Dorland, the Jeffco superintendent, said she would do everything in her power to make sure her schools were safe.

“But we cannot do it alone,” she said. “Safety requires vigilance, partnership and the unflinching belief that our children deserve better. The nation is tired of statements filled with platitudes and thoughts and prayers.”

In a statement, Gov. Jared Polis said he was carefully monitoring the situation at Evergreen High and Colorado State Patrol troopers were on scene to support local law enforcement.

“Students should be able to attend school safely and without fear across our state and nation. We are all praying for the victims and the entire community,” Polis said.

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, whose district includes Evergreen, said in a statement she was “shocked and heartbroken” to learn about the shooting.

“I’m hopeful that law enforcement is able to intervene and ensure all of our kids come home safe,” Pettersen said. “We are in communication with local law officials and will be there to support the Evergreen community.”

Law enforcement had cleared the high school as of 3:43 p.m., the sheriff’s office said.

Agents from the Denver division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI’s Denver field office also responded, officials said.

The shooting at Evergreen High is at least the seventh school shooting in Colorado since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School that killed 13 students and one teacher.

Before Wednesday, the sites of recent school shootings in the state included Denver’s East High School, where a student shot two administrators in 2023 as they searched him for weapons and killed himself after fleeing the scene; and Aurora’s Hinkley High School, where a student shot and injured three other students in 2021.

“No student, no educator, no family should ever have to endure the terror and trauma of gun violence in a place of learning,” said Brooke Williams, president of the Jefferson County Education Association, and Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, in a joint statement. “As leaders of Colorado’s educators, we are outraged that this continues to happen in our schools. … Families send their children to classrooms trusting they will return home safely each day.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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J.E., who is being identified by her initials to protect her daughter’s identity, wanted the suspect to be convicted, locked away. She wanted to know he couldn’t hurt anyone else, at least for a while.

But that’s not what happened.

Jesus Alberto Pereira Castillo, 21, posted $5,000 bail and was released from the Jefferson County jail on Nov. 27, 2024, court records show. He was subsequently arrested by federal immigration authorities and was deported from the country by May.

“Clerk notified via email that deft” — the defendant — “has been removed from the country,” Chief Judge Jeffrey Pilkington wrote in a May 19 order.

The deportation effectively ended the state’s criminal case against Castillo — the prosecution cannot continue without his presence in court, though he remains wanted on a warrant and could be prosecuted if he were to return to Colorado.

There was no conviction, no sentence, no jail time — just a deportation.

“It’s been pretty hard on me and my daughter,” J.E. said. “She doesn’t feel like she is getting the justice she deserves. It just has been so easy for immigrants to come into the country after they are deported. So the fear is that he might relocate somewhere else in the U.S. and do this to someone else. Them deporting him ruined justice for my daughter.”

At least two dozen defendants and one witness in criminal cases in metro Denver have been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported in the middle of ongoing state prosecutions since September, The Denver Post found. District attorneys across the region started to notice more defendants disappearing into ICE custody this spring, as President Donald Trump ramped up deportations nationwide.

Colorado district attorneys who spoke with The Post said such deportations are not in the interest of justice and do not improve public safety over the long term.

“If I can’t hold someone accountable because the defendant is deported before we’ve reached a just outcome in the case, and the defendant finds their way back here and commits another crime, that does not make the community safer,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said. “If victims of crime are afraid to call the police after they have been sexually assaulted or some other terrible crime because they are worried about being deported, that makes our community less safe.”

The defendants deported were charged with crimes that included driving under the influence, car theft, drug distribution, assault, domestic violence, attempted murder and human trafficking.

Again and again, court records reviewed by The Post showed criminal cases stalled by deportations.

“Def does not appear as he was deported and is no longer in the U.S.,” a document notes in the file for a  26-year-old man from Brazil who was accused of swinging a knife at his wife.

“Deft no longer in the country. Defendant (failed to appear),” a record states in the file for a 32-year-old man from Mexico charged with driving a stolen car.

‘Full force of the law’

Detectives with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver Police Department spent six months building a case against a 28-year-old man from El Salvador who they alleged sold drugs and was connected to a woman who fatally overdosed at an Arapahoe County apartment complex in October.

The investigation included a drug deal with an undercover Denver detective and ongoing surveillance. The man was charged with four felony counts related to drug dealing and two counts of child abuse after the six-month investigation culminated in his arrest on April 9.

The man’s arrest affidavit notes that he was arrested by the Aurora Police Department’s SWAT team, and then, without further explanation, says he was taken into custody by ICE.

Aurora police spokesman Joe Moylan said the city’s SWAT team assisted in the arrest and then turned the man over to the sheriff’s office while at the scene. Anders Nelson, a spokesman for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, said the agency “partners with ICE” when pursuing cases against suspected non-citizen drug dealers.

“ICE uses various means to positively identify these individuals, and so when they are arrested, ICE agents respond to identify the individual so that we can charge them accordingly under their correct name,” Nelson said. “In this case, the subject had a lengthy criminal history that included active warrants for his arrest and had entered the U.S. illegally on several occasions, and so ICE agents took custody of him.”

The suspect accused of selling drugs was deported within a month. The state criminal case remains open.

“Deft has been deported,” the man’s court records noted on May 9.

In an emailed statement, Denver ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki said the federal agency “arrests aliens who threaten public safety and commit crimes.”

Before their recent arrests and deportations, the two men from El Salvador and Brazil had previously been cited only for traffic violations in Colorado, according to records kept by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The man from Mexico had prior convictions for car theft and drug possession.

“ICE recognizes the importance of addressing unlawful actions with the full force of the law, ensuring that individuals are held accountable for their actions,” Kotecki said in the statement. “We are committed to creating safe and thriving communities by supporting effective and fair law enforcement practices.”

Tristan Gorman, a criminal defense attorney, noted that ICE’s mid-case deportations, which come before a defendant is convicted of a crime, are “completely disregarding the constitutional presumption of innocence.”

Mason, who serves as DA for Adams and Broomfield counties, said federal agencies “are under enormous pressure to implement the policies of the current administration.”

“This is new,” he said of the growing number of mid-case deportations.

Long-used process is no longer reliable

In the past, when ICE detained defendants while their state cases were ongoing, prosecutors relied on court orders called writs to ensure the defendants still appeared in court. A writ in this context is a judge’s order to a custodial agency, like a jail or immigration detention center, requiring the agency to bring the defendant to court.

ICE is no longer reliably complying with writs to produce defendants for their state hearings, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said.

“It’s hard to know and it’s hard to predict how a writ will be honored or not,” she said. “…A writ was our standard process that we relied on to keep someone available for a criminal proceeding. It is not consistently working.”

ICE hasn’t communicated its policies or procedures in any cohesive way to her team of Jefferson and Gilpin county prosecutors, King said. Her office is relying on personal connections between staff and officials at ICE to try to ensure defendants in federal custody are brought to court.

“It’s felt pretty ad hoc, and often reliant on us being very proactive,” she said.

ICE officials informed the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver Sheriff Department in June that the agency would no longer comply with writs for detainees in immigration custody to physically appear in the counties’ criminal courts.

“ICE Denver is no longer honor (sic) writ from Denver County Court due to the Denver County Jail do not (sic) comply with immigration detainer or fail to transfer custody of aliens in a safe and orderly manner,” Hung Thach, a supervisory detention and deportation officer in the Denver field office, wrote in a June 16 email to Denver officials.

In a statement issued to 9News and Colorado Public Radio, Denver Field Office Director Robert Gaudian said ICE would not honor the writs because agency officials were not confident the detainees would be returned to ICE’s custody after their state court appearances.

Kotecki did not respond to a request to share that statement with The Post. He previously has requested blanket anonymity for his statements as a spokesman for the federal agency, which The Post declined to grant. He also has said he would no longer provide information to The Post unless the newspaper complied with his request for anonymity.

“In the past, ICE Denver and the Adams County sheriff have enjoyed a great working relationship, with ICE honoring writs for trials and the sheriff notifying us of an alien’s release,” Gaudian said in the statement, according to 9News. “This relationship must be reciprocal, though. If I’m not confident that the sheriff will return an alien to us, then I cannot in good conscience release that individual.”

Denver sheriff’s spokeswoman Daria Serna defended the department’s practices for handling writs in a statement Wednesday.

“The Denver Sheriff Department’s policy and practice for the transfer of people in custody are in alignment with state and local laws,” she said.

ICE approach varies by jurisdiction

So far in Boulder, immigration authorities have largely complied with writs to produce defendants for state court hearings with just a handful of exceptions, said Michael Dougherty, the Boulder County district attorney.

The bigger risk for his office is not knowing about ICE detainment in time to seek a writ and delay deportation, because federal agents are failing to consistently alert prosecutors when they arrest defendants in state criminal cases, he said.

“ICE should provide a notification anytime they pick someone up and the person is a defendant,” Dougherty said. “That has not always happened. What has happened, more often than not, is we find out from the defense attorney or someone connected to the defendant that someone has been arrested by ICE and held for possible deportation.”

Dougherty noted that deportations seem to be happening much faster than in past years. When a defendant is deported in the middle of a case, it has a broad impact, he said.

“The victim never had his or her day in court,” he said. “We couldn’t do justice. There is no conviction, no sex offender registration and no consequences. And the person is deported to a country. We have no reason to believe the person is held responsible for the crime they were accused of.”

In Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, prosecutors have not had any issues with ICE agents deporting defendants mid-case, said 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler. He said federal agents have given his office warnings when ICE is interested in defendants, which has allowed prosecutors to revoke defendants’ bonds to keep them in jail — in state custody — while the criminal case is pending.

Gorman, the defense attorney, said revoking bond simply because a person could be deported is fundamentally unfair.

“We’re just basically saying to them, ‘Yeah, we put all these terms and conditions on your bond and you’ve got to comply with them or we will revoke your bond,” she said. “But even if you do absolutely everything right and show up at all your court dates, we might revoke your bond anyway… even though you followed all the rules.”

Arrests at courthouses

Colorado law prohibits ICE agents from arresting people at or near state courthouses for civil immigration purposes — a line that federal agents have crossed multiple times this year, including in Denver and on the Western Slope.

Federal agents have also been routinely making immigration arrests at Denver’s federal courthouses, which are not covered by the state prohibition.

In Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties, federal agents monitored courthouse dockets in order to detain defendants for immigration proceedings, Ninth Judicial District Chief Judge John Neiley wrote in an April 8 order instructing federal agents to stop.

“In short, these types of arrests make courthouses less safe, frustrate the process of justice, and could have a chilling effect on litigants, witnesses, victims, court personnel and other members of the public who have a right and obligation to participate fairly in the judicial system,” Neiley wrote in the order.

Although the practice is against Colorado law, there are no criminal penalties for federal agents who make such prohibited arrests. Rather, state law says they can be held in contempt of court or sued by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Spokesman Lawrence Pacheco said the office could not confirm or comment on any such investigations.

“Attorney General (Phil) Weiser is concerned about reports of ICE arrests at state courthouses interfering with state criminal prosecutions and having a chilling effect on witnesses and victims in criminal cases,” Pacheco said. “Federal immigration arrests at courthouses make our communities less safe and violate state law.”

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