LITTLETON, Colo. – A teacher tackled a man armed with a high-powered rifle just after he shot two teenage students Tuesday at a suburban Denver middle school that’s just miles from Columbine High School, the site of one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings, authorities said.

One male and one female were shot at 3:30 p.m. outside Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Jefferson County Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said. Both students were taken to a nearby hospital and were expected to survive.

Student Steven Seagraves said he was about 10 feet away when an adult approached students and asked them: ”Do you guys go to this school?” When the students said they did, he shot them, Seagraves said.

Bus driver Steve Potter said he was about to pull away from the school with a full bus when he heard a loud bang. Students screamed when they spotted the man with a rifle, Potter told KMGH-TV.

”He looked like he was just kind of looking around for someone to shoot,” he said.

Seventh-grade math teacher David Benke, a former college basketball player, tackled the suspect. Potter said he and another bus driver jumped on the gunman and helped hold him.

The suspect’s name hasn’t been released, but authorities say he’s 32. Kelley said authorities don’t yet have a motive for the shootings. ”Why this school, why this happened, why these students, we don’t have any of those answers yet,” she said.

 

Copy the Story Link