Investigation clears Colorado parents of criminal charges in Evergreen High School shooting
The parents of the teenager who shot two students before killing himself at a Colorado high school in 2025 have been cleared of criminal wrongdoing following a nearly five-month investigation, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said on Wednesday.
The shooting occurred on Sept. 10, 2025, at Evergreen High School. The sheriff's office identified the shooter as 16-year-old Desmond Holly. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The two students who were shot both suffered critical injuries that required extended hospital stays.
Investigators have released a trove of information in the months since the shooting. The formal investigation concluded on Wednesday with the sheriff's office saying they believe the gun the shooter used was a 50-year-old revolver the parents considered a family heirloom. The sheriff's office said it was kept in a locked safe that the teen did not have access to.
"The JCSO acknowledges that this was not the outcome many in our community hoped for," the sheriff's office said in a statement on Wednesday. "In the wake of this tragic event, we remained fully committed to conducting a thorough and impartial investigation, guided by the facts and the law. While not every investigation results in additional charges, our focus has always been on pursuing the truth and accountability wherever it could be legally established."
The gun, according to investigators, was a Smith & Wesson .38 Special Revolver originally purchased in Florida in 1966. The trail of ownership was difficult to determine after the original owner died. The sheriff's office said the FBI and ATF assisted in trying to track the ownership of the gun.
DNA tests were conducted on the gun and found no traces of the parents on it, but the family's attorney sent a letter to the sheriff's office on Jan. 23, saying the gun was owned by one of the teen's grandparents, officials said on Wednesday.
"According to the letter, the shooter did not have access to the safe, except for brief moments when it was opened by his father," the sheriff's office stated.
Investigators tried to establish evidence sufficient to charge the parents with providing a firearm to a juvenile or violations of Colorado's secure firearms storage law, but say they were unable to find such evidence.
"This case will be closed, pending the emergence of new evidence that would warrant the filing of charges," the sheriff's office said. "We recognize the deep pain this tragedy continues to cause, and we share the community's sorrow."
The sheriff's office didn't immediately respond to a question seeking clarity on how the teen was able to access the safe.
The day after the shooting, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said that the shooter was "radicalized by some extremist network, and the details of that will be down the road."
A report released by the Anti-Defamation League after the shooting included details about that alleged radicalization, saying he was active on a so-called "violent gore" website months before the attack. In a now-deleted TikTok post that contained references to a 2019 mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, he engaged with a comment encouraging him to "make a move," the ADL said at the time.
Five days after the shooting, the FBI confirmed that two months before the shooting, the bureau received a tip about a social media account that was later connected to the shooter.
Mental health resources have been made available to students and others impacted by the shooting in the months since.
The Evergreen Resiliency Center is located at 5120 CO Road 73 in Evergreen. It's open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can call 720-362-2925 or email admin.erc@victimoutreach.org.
Additional resources are available online at massviolence.help/evergreen-co.