Editor's note: Authorities said Wednesday around 8:30 p.m. that a body was found in Park County near the vehicle the shooting suspect was associated with. The identity of the person has not been confirmed. Click here for more.
In an interview exclusively with Denver7, an East High School student recounted the chaos inside the school Wednesday during a shooting that injured two faculty members.
Tyrone, who is a junior at East and a member of the student council, said he was outside the school when the shooting and the aftermath began unfolding.
“I started hearing sirens — fire truck sirens — in the area and started running toward the school,” he said. “[But] I looked at the building and the students started running. I saw students in classrooms ducking their heads.”
Another student, Aubriana Acuna, said many of her classmates thought it was a drill before getting information from police.
"We're just kind of numb to it at this point since this has happened so much," she said. "Like second time this month. I think it's insane. It's really not fair at all."
Tyrone said he has lost multiple friends to violence at East. Most recently, 16-year-old Luis Garcia died weeks after being shot near the school.
"That really shook up the community," sophomore Chase Chavez told Denver7. "So when I heard it, I got really scared because I'm like, you know, it could be a repeat of it."
Students walked out of school in the days after Garcia’s death, calling for an end to gun violence.
“We tried to do everything [...] to help do anything about this,” Tyrone said. “But we still can't do anything about it.”
Wednesday’s shooting — which sent two deans of the school to the hospital — is the latest in a string of violent incidents at East High: A September shooting at the nearby Carla Madison Recreation Center that injured a junior at the school, a “swatting” incident just days later, and the February shooting that ultimately took the life of East High student Luis Garcia.
"I really want to see it to be a safe place because we had a whole protest but it wasn't for nothing," Chavez said. "We had a whole reason behind it. We want to stop the gun violence, especially in school. School people go here because maybe they don't eat at home."
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East HS parent after shooting of 2 deans: ‘This place is a ticking time bomb’
The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting was identified as 17-year-old Austin Lyle, who had been put on a safety plan by the school. That plan included being searched at the beginning of every day.
Lyle was still at-large Wednesday afternoon, police said.
One of the deans injured in the shooting went into surgery, and the other was able to talk at the hospital following the shooting, according to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.