DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — A private security guard suspected of firing at a sheriff’s officer and wounding a student during an attack at a Highlands Ranch school wasn’t supposed to be armed, according to e-mails and other documents provided Tuesday to 9Wants to Know.
Consequently, school administrators were not aware the guard had a gun, according to a statement provided to 9Wants to Know by a spokesman for STEM School Highlands Ranch, scene of a deadly attack last May 7 that was carried out by two teenagers.
It left one student dead and eight others wounded – including one who, according to court documents, was hit by a bullet fired by the private security guard.
The security guard’s conduct is the subject of an ongoing investigation being conducted by El Paso County District Attorney Dan May. The day after the shooting, 9Wants to Know reported that investigators were looking into a possible incidence of “friendly fire” that apparently began when the security guard saw the muzzle of a gun coming around a corner and shot back.
That muzzle was apparently the gun of a responding Douglas County sheriff’s officer, who was not wounded.
The guard was employed by BOSS High Level Protection.
“The investigation’s still going, so I can’t talk about it,” Grant Whitus, the company’s chief operating officer, told 9Wants to Know Tuesday.
The e-mails and the fact that school officials requested an unarmed security guard were first reported by the Colorado Sun.
Chris Arnold, a spokesman for the school, said in a statement that, "STEM's administrator and leadership were not aware the guard was armed."
The question of hiring a private security officer for the school was first raised in an e-mail Aug. 31, 2018, by Kathy Reid, the office manager at STEM school. Reid wrote to Whitus, in part, that “we are interested in one security guard for our school.”
After several messages back and forth that also included others from the school and the company, Leanne Weyman, director at the school, wrote to John DeLue, director of sales at BOSS: “We do not want an armed guard at this point. Do you do unarmed guards? If so, is the price reduced.”
DeLue responded that “we can do unarmed at $26/hour. This would be the same caliber of guard as our other schools, just unarmed.”
The cost of an armed security guard was $30 an hour, according to BOSS literature provided to 9Wants to Know by school officials.
Ultimately, Weyman signed a contract with BOSS on Sept. 10, 2018. A copy of the contract, provided to 9Wants to Know, had no mention of whether the guard would be armed but said the fee was $26 an hour. Under a section for “scope of work” the contract said: “Security guard services. Client is a school ranging from elementary to high school, guard will complete duties as described by client.”
Arnold, the school spokesman, said school administrators believed that having the unarmed guard at the school would augment visits by off-duty Douglas County sheriff's deputies.
Court documents outlined the alleged actions of the two suspects in the case, Devon Erickson, 18, and Alec McKinney, 16.
One student, Kendrick Castillo, died after he and classmates rushed one of the two attackers.
RELATED: 'He wanted to be a hero’: Parents of STEM School victim Kendrick Castillo mourn loss of son
Each of the suspects has been charged with 46 separate counts, including two counts of first-degree murder, one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, 31 counts of attempted first degree murder and charges including arson, burglary, theft, weapons possession, criminal mischief, interference with a school and reckless endangerment.
An arrest affidavit for the suspects portrays the attack on the school as being carried out haphazardly with little planning.
According to the affidavit, the younger suspect was “super suicidal” and wanted to get revenge on a lot of people. The older suspect tried to talk him out of it, according to the document, and repeatedly told investigators that he wanted to stop the shooting “but couldn’t articulate how or why he never told an adult.”
The morning of May 7, the two went to the older suspect’s home, investigators wrote in the document. There, according to the affidavit, the two “hung out in the basement” and used cocaine, then broke into a locked gun safe with an ax and a pry bar. They took four weapons – three handguns and a rifle – as well as ammunition, and headed to the school, according to the affidavit.
After returning to the school, they smuggled in guns inside a guitar case, according to the affidavit, entering a door where they knew they would not be checked.
They went to a classroom and eventually pulled out the guns, yelling, “Nobody move,” according to the affidavit, then opened fire.
One suspect was tackled by students – including Castillo – and the other was confronted by the security officer who is now under investigation.
The security officer has not been publicly identified. However, 9Wants to Know has confirmed that he is a former sheriff’s deputy and Marine – and that he apprehended one of the teenage suspects in the incident.
He enrolled in the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department’s academy July 11, 2013, graduated that December, and worked in the jail before leaving the department Aug. 23, 2017, according to records provided to 9Wants to Know.
Before that, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from June 2008 to June 2012, deploying twice to Afghanistan. After his four-year stint of active duty ended, he spent three more years in the reserves, 9Wants to Know confirmed with the U.S. Marine Corps.
Contact 9NEWS reporter Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
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