8 injured, 2 suspects in custody in shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch

Eight people are injured, and two suspects are in custody in the shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch, officials said Tuesday afternoon.

Douglas County Undersheriff Holly Nicholson-Kluth said authorities did not believe another suspect was still in the school. Deputies were still going room to room at the school, clearing the building.

Four of the victims were in serious condition and one was in fair condition at Littleton Adventist Hospital, officials said. One victim was in good condition at Children's Hospital. Two other victims were at Sky Ridge Medical Center, but their conditions were unknown.

Authorities responded about 1:50 p.m. to a shot fired at the school, which is located off South Ridgeline Road and Plaza Drive in Highlands Ranch. The sheriff's office initially called the incident an "active and unstable" scene. Nicholson-Kluth said the scene was still active about 3:30 p.m. and that authorities were still working to evacuate children from the school.

The school did not have a School Resource Officer assigned to the building. Nicholson-Kluth said it wasn't yet known whether the suspects were students at the school.

FBI and ATF agents were also responding to the school, federal investigators confirmed.

The STEM school, which has about 1,800 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, was placed on lockdown after the shooting, and all other Douglas County schools were on lockout, the school district said. Parents of STEM school students were being directed to meet their children at Northridge Rec Center at 8800 S. Broadway.

Kelley Paulson, the mother of two students at STEM School Highlands Ranch, spoke to Denver7 about what she knows about the shooting and said she was still waiting to hear about one of her children.

"I got a text from a friend who was actually in there," Paulson said. "She said 'guns, shooting, oh my god, oh my god.' And she could hear them and that's how I first knew. The next thing I know, I heard my son, who is calling me because all of the kids who were in middle school...all immediately ran out of the building."

Paulson's son, Christian, said he was in study hall at the school when he saw "a bunch of kids running out and saying, 'School shooter, school shooter!'"

"And I'm like, what? Is this real or fake? And then I just went after them," Christian Paulson said. "And apparently, this is all real. And I tried to run with my life, but I'm out of breath."

Source: Article originally appeared in www.thedenverchannel.com