DENVER (KDVR) — Hundreds of students were impacted Wednesday when one of their classmates brought a gun to campus and shot two students and himself at a Colorado high school.
Freshman Sam Fisher was in Evergreen High School’s band room when the lockdown began, just days into his first year of high school.
“So we all kind of hid in a corner,” Fisher said. “We heard, like, the first gunshot, we were one of the first rooms that they went to. So it was the first gunshot that went, and everybody kind of freaked out a bit, and then there was a second, and I sort of blanked out at that point, but I think I felt some kind of debris hit my forehead.”
The suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the hospital hours after the shooting, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Fisher said his class ran to hide in the band teacher’s office, and that’s when he saw the shooter.
“I saw him right in front of me and everything, and he was on the other side of the room in the door, and I saw the gun and everything pointed at me and everybody else … and it’s just … it was something,” he said. “I think he broke the window and tried to get through, but I don’t think he did. I think they went past our room — they just kind of gave up.”
Fisher said other students told him that the suspected shooter was smiling and waving during the incident.
“I don’t see how one could feel OK for themselves after doing such a thing,” Fisher said. “We all went into our teacher’s office, and it’s a very small room — there’s about 20 of us. We were all in there for maybe an hour and a half at least.”
He said he texted his mother, father and friends about the incident.
“I was like, I want to say I love them and everything, and just in case something bad really did happen,” Fisher said.
Fisher said he hopes there will be higher security at school when classes resume.
“I know this is a very safe area, and they haven’t had anything like this in probably 30 years, but it’s just — I’m worried to go back,” Fisher said.
Records from NewsNation affiliate KDVR indicate there have been 14 school shootings in Colorado since the Columbine school shooting in 1999, with the most recent being from 2023 at East High School in Denver, where a student shot two deans and later killed himself.