Colorado students witness teen suspect driving recklessly, slashing tires during last day of school
Senior student Acacia Wood attends Cherokee Trail High School in southeast Aurora. When she showed up to school this past Tuesday morning, she saw a car speeding through the parking lot and heard tires screeching.
"So I think it's kids doing doughnuts in the parking lot, or someone just kind of like being a little devious," Wood explained to CBS Colorado.
Wood quickly realized it was much more serious.
"He swerves past the front entrance and almost hits multiple kids, and it was scary to see," Wood said.
It was senior checkout day for both Wood and Salina Gill, the last half day of school until graduation. They thought it would be a quick thing, but it wasn't.
"We got locked in the school for hours. I was stuck there for probably like six hours," Wood said.
Aurora Police Department confirmed a 17-year-old suspect sped through the parking lot of the high school and Fox Ridge Middle School, committing a slew of crimes.
"His most severe charge was unlawful display of a weapon on school grounds for bringing a weapon to Cherokee Trail High School. Other charges are criminal mischief items related to hit-and-run and reckless driving, " Deputy Chief Mike Gaskin said during an in-field press conference.
Salina says the suspect slashed the tires on a security guard's vehicle.
"And then he had driven all along the sidewalks and in the upper lot entrance, where the security guards ran outside, and he tried to run over the security guards," Gill told CBS Colorado.
But that wasn't the end of the crime spree. On Wednesday afternoon, APD said the suspect arrived home and started acting erratic. The suspect's mother called police after he began to throw things around his home. Police arrived and say that led to the suspect lighting objects on fire and throwing them toward first responders. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and no fires were sparked from the attempts.
"At one point, the teenager came out to the balcony of the residence and started throwing what officers believed to be Molotov cocktails," Gaskin confirmed at the scene.
There is no identifying information being shared by Aurora Police Department at this time due to the age of the suspect.
Wood and Gill say they can't believe this happened at their school weeks before graduation.
"I'm thankful that the staff and the security and the law enforcement in the area acted appropriately and came fast, because a lot of lives were at stake," Gill said.