CNN
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The Park County, Colorado coroner confirmed that a body found in a wooded area Wednesday night is 17-year-old Austin Lyle. who allegedly shot and wounded two staff members earlier that day at a Denver high school – a community already reeling from a fatal incident of gun violence last month.
“The Park County Coroner’s Office will continue to conduct an investigation into the death,” the office said in a statement on Facebook, “and will have no further details after the autopsy is complete.”
Lyle’s body was found around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday in Park County near a red Volvo SUV wanted by police, Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said during a news conference, telling him told an apprehensive community that it should be “relieved” and that a previous shelter-in-place alert had been lifted for nearby residents.
Denver police officers previously identified the suspect in the Wednesday morning shooting at East High School as Lyle, a student under a security protocol that required him to submit to daily searches upon entering the school. An hour-long manhunt ensued after the alleged student fled the scene.
One staff member is in critical condition, while another was seriously injured and is in stable condition, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said Wednesday.
The search for the suspect’s vehicle on Wednesday was “pretty intense,” McGraw said, adding that several local law enforcement agencies were involved, as well as the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Ultimately, the Jefferson County SWAT team led the search and located a body about 1,000 feet from the suspect’s vehicle, about four hours after the van was first located around 4:30 p.m., McGraw said.
The sheriff declined to say how the death occurred and declined to disclose whether a weapon was found near the body. Until Wednesday, police did not say whether the gun used in the shooting had been recovered.
The East High School shooting was the 18th shooting this year at an elementary or secondary school in the U.S. in which at least one person was injured or killed, according to the gun Violence File, a non-profit organization whose mission is to record every incident of gun violence across the country in real time.
Last month, 16-year-old student Luis Garcia was shot inside a parked car near the school and died weeks later, according to KMGH, CNN affiliate. Later, a group of East High students attended a city council meeting and demanded action on gun violence and school safety, KMGH reported.
Alex Marrero, the superintendent of Denver Public Schools, issued a statement Wednesday implementing a policy that requires two armed Denver Police Department officers to be stationed at East High School during school hours.
“Today was my fourth visit to the Denver Health Intensive Care Unit due to victims of gun violence. These events should not have occurred under my mandate or under the mandate of this Board,” Marrero wrote. “This is a sad and tragic day for East High School, the Denver Public Schools and our entire Denver community.”
East High will close for the rest of the week after the shooting, Marrero said during a news conference Wednesday.
The East High shooting is yet another example of violence destroying one of the most conventional, yet dangerously prone, places for children. And for the students at the school, the chaos was all too familiar.
Aubriana Acuña said she was “freaked out” when she found out about the shooting and said it is unfair that she has to put up with the constant incidents of gun violence.
“We’re just a little numb right now since this has happened so often,” he said. he told KMGH. “We are so exhausted from all of this. It’s so unfair. … This happens almost every day. I can’t even walk out of my house without feeling like I’m going to die or get shot. And it’s terrifying for everyone.”
Students have come out in dozens recently to demand change in the way gun violence is handled in their community.
Denver East High School Chapter of Students Demand Action went on a school strike and called for immediate action on gun safety earlier this month. The demonstration was marked by a march through the city to the State Capitol building and was attended by more than 1,000 students and educators, according to the organization.
Students at the event wore red and carried signs such as “School was my safe place,” “Our blood, your hands” and “Am I next?”, according to KMGH.
East High, located in the City Park neighborhood, serves approximately 2,500 students in grades 9 through 12. The school is the largest and highest-performing comprehensive high school of all Denver Public Schools, according to the school system.