AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Three people were shot Friday in the parking lot of a high school in the Denver suburb of Aurora, and the school is on lockdown, police said Friday. The shooting came after six students from another Aurora high school were shot and injured Monday at a park near their school.
The Aurora Police Department tweeted that two of the people shot shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Friday outside Hinkley High School were taken to a hospital and that a third managed to get to a hospital on their own. No additional details were immediately available and police did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment.
Police cars converged on the high school with officers setting up yellow crime tape in the parking lot.
The Aurora public school district messaged parents about how to pick up their children and said it would implement a phased release of students inside the school starting at 2 p.m. All after-school sports and activities were canceled.
Gov. Jared Polis said he was thinking about the two injured people in the hospital — and added that the back to back shootings are a message that action to curb youth violence is needed.
“We as a state have to redouble our efforts on public safety,” said, Polis, a Democrat.
He added that “with the two shootings in Aurora we are going to have a renewed focus on youth violence.”
In Monday’s shooting, the six students from Aurora Central High School were the victims of a drive-by shooting and police have not arrested anyone yet. The two schools are three miles (4.8 miles) apart.
The victims in Monday’s shooting, boys and girls ranging in age from 14 to 18, were all expected to survive but police chief Vanessa Wilson said Tuesday that two of them had “significant” injuries and faced long recoveries.
Numerous shell casings fired from different guns were found at the scene of Monday’s shooting and it is possible some rounds were fired by someone on foot, police said. Police have said they have located one of two cars involved in that shooting.
Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said after Monday’s shooting that everyone should be outraged by gun violence, which she called a public health crisis.
“There is a violence crisis across the nation right now, and so I think we all need to pay attention,” she said.
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