“The only thing he said out loud to the students was ‘Don’t you move,’” said Nui Giasolli, an 18-year-old senior who was in the class at the time.
In that moment, she recalled, Kendrick Castillo, a gentle teenager fascinated by cars and engineering, lunged to stop the gunman and was shot dead. Eight other students were wounded in the shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch on Tuesday afternoon, which authorities said was carried out by two fellow students.
Giasolli said Castillo’s split-second decision to lunge for the gunman gave the other students a precious few seconds. Giasolli said a cluster of boys then tackled the gunman, allowing her and others to flee the classroom.
“I don’t have enough words,” Giasolli said Wednesday. “They didn’t have to risk their lives to save the 15 of us who were left.”
Sara Stacks, 17, said Castillo had been her childhood best friend. “He cared about his faith and his family and friends more than himself or anything,” she said.
The suspects carried at least two handguns, and at least one of them had been restrained by a school security officer by the time law enforcement arrived, Sheriff Tony Spurlock of Douglas County said.
Spurlock said deputies had to force their way into the school because it was locked down. Law enforcement happened to choose a door that was near the shooting scene and quickly apprehended one of the suspects, who was identified as Devon Erickson, 18.
Erickson entered court Wednesday wearing a red jumpsuit draped over his thin frame. His hair, dyed pink and blue, hung over his face. At times his body shook slightly.
The younger suspect, whom court documents identified as Maya Elizabeth McKinney, entered the courtroom with a short brown haircut, wearing a polo shirt and shackles. The suspect’s lawyer began by saying that his client went by “Alec” and used male pronouns.
The second suspect, who prosecutors said is 16, sat with his mother, an allowance the court permitted because he is a minor. The mother declined to be named.
After the court hearing Wednesday, District Attorney George Brauchler said that he would consider trying the juvenile suspect as an adult.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.