Police: Suspects in Denver STEM shooting were high on coke, carried guns in guitar case
DENVER – The two students who killed a classmate as they attacked their suburban Denver high school last month were high on cocaine when they walked into the building with a guitar case full of guns, according to newly released court documents.
Investigators say suspects Devon Erickson, 18, and Alec McKinney, 16, used cocaine at Erickson’s house before hacking into his parents’ gun safe with an ax and crowbar.
McKinney, who was born female but identifies as male, said he wanted to hurt his classmates because they taunted him over his gender identity. Erickson told investigators he was afraid of McKinney and made several efforts to stop the attack or limit the carnage, according to court documents released in Douglas County, Colorado on Thursday evening.
Erickson told investigators that he had a panic attack in the moments before the shooting began, and never warned school administrators as he intended.
Erickson faces 48 charges, including first-degree murder. McKinney is a juvenile and the charges against him remain secret. Student Kendrick Ray Castillo, 18, was killed in the attack as he rushed one of the shooters. Eight other students were injured in the May 7 attack at the Highlands Ranch charter school about 13 miles south of Denver.
Investigators said Erickson and McKinney put the guns into a guitar case and walked into the middle school entrance because they knew they wouldn't be searched. They then targeted a specific classroom after warning several students to leave, according to court documents.
Erickson said he pulled out a gun because he was trying to stop the attack, and it went off when his classmates rushed him. McKinney said he began shooting when he heard Erickson's gun fire.
McKinney "said he shot the revolver until it was empty and then shot the Glock until it was empty,” investigators wrote in their affidavit for arrest. McKinney told investigators he then grabbed a third handgun and was going to commit suicide but couldn’t work the safety and was then disarmed by a security guard.
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Investigators say that a private security guard, a former U.S. Marine, shot at a sheriff's deputy responding to the scene and wounded someone inside a classroom. Authorities are separately investigating that security guard's actions, and did not specify who was hit by the shot he fired.
McKinney "said he has had suicidal and homicidal thoughts since he was 12 and more recently in the last few weeks when he planned the school shooting," investigators wrote in their arrest warrant after interviewing both students. He "said he and Devon talked via Snapchat last night about carrying out the plan today at school."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Police: Suspects in Denver STEM shooting were high on coke, carried guns in guitar case
