Crime

Body found of teen accused of shooting 2 school administrators

A 17-year-old school shooting suspect's body was found hours after being accused of shooting two administrators.

Authorities arrive to a high school in Denver.
Scripps News Denver
SMS

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the shooting was not fatal. 

Authorities said they have found the body of a teen suspect accused of shooting two school administrators. 

The body was found in Park County, Colorado, during a search for the student suspect.

The shooting occurred Wednesday morning at a high school in Denver.

The student suspect was on the run after he fled the scene, police said, as they released information on the suspect and a photo in their efforts to find him.

Police Chief Ron Thomas said the suspect, later identified as East student Austin Lyle, 17, was under a school safety agreement where he had to be patted down and searched in a front office before school each day. Thomas said this had happened every day for a while without a problem, but on Wednesday, the student pulled a firearm and shot and injured the two deans.

In a letter to the community, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said armed officers will be added to each "of our DPS comprehensive high schools beginning Thursday, March 23, for the remainder of the school year."

Thomas said during a press conference that the report of a shooting came in at 9:50 a.m. and officers, as well as medical personnel, quickly responded to East High School, which was put on lockdown.

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Denver police have had a presence outside the high school for quite some time already, Mayor Michael Hancock said earlier in the day.

"I think it's clear now that we need to do even more interdiction with our police officers inside the buildings in these types of situations," he said.

Scripps News Denver spoke with the grandmother of two students who were barricaded inside the school.

“I’m very upset," the grandmother said. "We, as a society, are not doing enough. We don’t have any police in the school. There’s no metal detectors. I’m tired of hearing there’s no money for that. Don’t tell me that we don’t have money for that. It’s our kids' safety we are talking about... What you go through in your mind when you don’t know what is happening, you don’t know where the shooter is, you’re not sure where your kids are. We have to make changes."

The East High School community protested against recent gun violence last month, when students attended a Denver City Council meeting to demand action on gun violence and school safety after 16-year-old Luis Garcia was killed in a shooting near the school on Feb. 13. The teen's funeral was Saturday. In addition, last September, an East High student and a 20-year-old man were injured in a shooting near the school. In early March, students walked out of class and marched to the Colorado State Capitol to demand an end to gun violence.

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