At least seven people were hospitalized with injuries sustained at the famed amphitheater’s Louis Tomlinson concert. The injuries requiring hospitalization included cuts and broken bones, according to West Metro Fire Rescue postings on Twitter.

Between 80 and 90 other people who suffered lacerations and bruises were treated by paramedics and medical personnel at the venue, West Metro Fire officials said.

UPDATE: Red Rocks hail storm- 7 people transported to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. A total of 80 to 90 people treated on scene. Injuries include cuts and broken bones. Sporadic hail still coming down in Morrison area. @StadiumMedical pic.twitter.com/gM7KKNqocW

— WestMetroFire (@WestMetroFire) June 22, 2023

A National Weather Service bulletin, posted on Twitter at 9:26 p.m., warned of radar showing “golf ball sized hail or larger,” specifically mentioning the Red Rocks area, and advised: “Take cover with this storm!!”

Significant storm near Morrison, with radar indicating golf ball sized hail or larger near @RedRocksCO. Take cover with this storm!!

Please continue to relay reports to our office. #cowx pic.twitter.com/S7EcSWmnr5

— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) June 22, 2023

But at the Denver-owned Red Rocks venue, west of the city in mountain foothills, opportunities to take cover are limited, typically requiring 10-minute treks, sometimes longer, to reach vehicles parked in peripheral lots. Rideshare transportation can mean no shelter is available.

Red Rocks officials earlier Wednesday evening had announced delays of the Tomlinson concert, starting around 8:07 p.m., due to the threat of lightning. They advised concertgoers to take shelter in their vehicles until an all-clear was given for the event to continue.

Some of the estimated 6,000 people in the crowd left at that point.

ATTN @Louis_Tomlinson concertgoers: We are currently in a weather delay Please seek shelter in your vehicle and we’ll let you know when we’ve received the all clear

— Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre (@RedRocksCO) June 22, 2023

The event resumed and ticket-holders flocked back to their seats as storms continued to develop overhead in the clouds. Heavy hail began falling around 9:30 p.m. By then, it was too late to shield thousands of concertgoers from heavy rain, the golf-ball-sized hail, and potentially deadly lightning strikes.

Videos show a frantic scramble, and scores of people crammed into restrooms, backstage and a visitor center seeking shelter. Others hunkered under signs.

my dad took this right after i was safe backstage. it was straight out of a horror movie. pic.twitter.com/cCzY2jiDIE

— madi♡²⁸ (@anditslou) June 22, 2023

It wasn’t until 10:25 p.m. that Red Rocks officials, apparently counting on the storm passing, declared an official postponement. Hailstones covered the seats, paths and parking lots at that time.

Red Rocks is run by Denver Arts & Venues, a branch of the city government. Red Rocks managers say they rely on a contactor, called Skyview, for guidance based on National Weather Service forecasts — which on Wednesday afternoon warned of potentially severe storms.

The contractor notified Red Rocks managers shortly after 9 p.m. “that something was forming and that it was moving fast and that this one was serious,” said Brian Kitts, the city’s spokesman for Red Rocks.

Red Rocks officials posted a red emergency evacuation warning on a display screen at the venue advising everyone to take shelter about 10 minutes before the hail hit, Kitts said.

“Our response was immediate, as soon as they (the contractor) said, ‘This is serious,’” Kitts said. “Venue managers are not meteorologists. We rely on this type of advice.”

On social media, concertgoers lamented injuries and posted shaky video snippets showing large hail pelting frantic people who ran, using their arms and garments to try to protect their heads in the fray.

Tonight was the scariest night of my life. It started pelting people with hail at Red Rocks and my sister and I luckily found shelter under a sign. I am bleeding and have huge bumps on my head from the hail. Hoping everyone made it out safely. pic.twitter.com/jong1SBuYd

— nicole (@nikkitbfh) June 22, 2023

“Tonight was the scariest night of my life,” a woman who identified herself as Nicole wrote in a posting on Twitter at 9:47 p.m. “It started pelting people with hail at Red Rocks and my sister and I luckily found shelter under a sign. I am bleeding and have huge bumps on my head from the hail. Hoping everyone made it out safely.”

A 10:26 p.m. Twitter posting said: “Thank you so much to the concessions workers at red rocks for not letting us in to take shelter bc we couldn’t get to our cars and instead recorded us and laughed at us while i was sobbing having a panic attack.”

thank you so much to the concessions workers at red rocks for not letting us in to take shelter bc we couldn’t get to our cars and instead recorded us and laughed at us while i was sobbing having a panic attack pic.twitter.com/tJp488vbMu

— bella* ♡’s wct ADDY DAY!!! (@fa11ing4lou) June 22, 2023

The concertgoers who were hospitalized mostly suffered from lacerations and have been treated and released, Kitts said Thursday morning.

And Red Rocks officials were looking into allegations that concession workers mocked and took videos of people scrambling for shelter.

“We saw what was posted and we have reached out to that person hoping they will tell us where that concession stand was,” Kitts said. “If that happened, it is absolutely not what you want to hear about your colleagues doing in a situation like that. But we don’t know where that concession stand was or what the extent of that was. We don’t have verification yet.”

City officials weren’t ready to discuss whether shelters ought to be built around the red sandstone rocks as protection against possible future extreme weather during concerts, he said.

“Last night was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Kitts said. “Red Rocks and other outdoor venues are subject to this kind of weather. Fans are generally prepared for it. Last night was a hard one.”

Devastated about the show tonight, hope everyone’s ok, I’ll be back! Even though we didn’t play the show I felt all of your passion! Sending you all love!

— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) June 22, 2023

Tomlinson issued a statement, posted on Twitter at 11:56 p.m., saying he was “devastated about the show.” Tomlinson added: “Hope everyone’s ok, I’ll be back! Even though we didn’t play the show I felt all of your passion! Sending you all love!”

Red Rocks officials said on Twitter that they hoped to reschedule the Tomlinson concert, and that “information regarding refunds will come to ticket holders directly from Live Nation, the promoter of last night’s event.”

Storms sweeping across Colorado on Wednesday led to exceptionally severe weather including lightning, wind bursts, heavy rain, hail and a few tornadoes in northeastern Colorado.

Southeast of Colorado Springs, heavy rain, hail and intense lightning hammered communities including Security, Fountain, Widefield and Hanover, according to weather service and county alert bulletins. On Thursday morning, the extent of the damage wasn’t clear and forecasters warned that more severe weather is expected Thursday afternoon.

At least 20 shots were fired from multiple guns near the intersection of Market and 20th streets as the crowds began to disperse, police said. Surveillance footage of the shooting shows the nearby crowd scattering as the more than 80 Denver police officers who had been standing in the intersection immediately chased after the suspects.

All 10 people wounded were expected to survive following a rapid emergency medical response that led to four concurrent surgeries, city officials said during a news conference. Five or six of the people wounded were innocent bystanders, Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said.

“I’m truly troubled to be here before you talking about these tragic events that occurred last night in downtown Denver, when instead we should be celebrating an NBA championship win by our Denver Nuggets,” Thomas said. “Sadly, though, because of this unnecessary instance of gun violence that occurred literally in the midst of thousands of community members who were peacefully celebrating, we have to put that aside right now.”

Five people remained hospitalized midday Tuesday in fair condition, Denver Health Medical Center chief surgeon Dr. Eric Campion said. Every patient who underwent surgery had serious, life-threatening injuries, he said. Nine of those wounded were men and one victim was a woman.

Police took two men into custody and recovered fentanyl pills, some of them packaged in bags, and five handguns. One of the suspects was wounded.

Ricardo Vasquez, 22, was caught running from the scene by police at Park Avenue and was arrested on charges of possession of controlled substances and possession of weapons as a previous offender. Raoul Jones, 33, was being held for possession of weapons by a previous offender, police said.

“We are still working to determine the motive. There appears to be a drug nexus,” Denver police major crimes division Cmdr. Matt Clark said.

Thousands of people had gathered in the Lower Downtown bar district about a mile north of Ball Arena, where the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat on Monday night to win the NBA championship. Some of the revelers swung from stoplights shortly before midnight.

Fights broke out and shots were fired after the altercation involving several people near 20th and Market around 12:30 a.m., police spokesman Douglas Schepman said.

Thousands still were in that area celebrating, though crowd numbers had begun to decrease when the shooting began.

“I thought it was safe when I went out last night. We had all that armory that was out there, all the police officers, basically like a military guard,” downtown resident Scott Dangelo, 55, said in an interview Tuesday morning.

He was walking near concrete barriers beside police officers shortly after midnight, without his hearing aids in.

“I thought it was just more fireworks going off. The percussion kind of startled me… The police officers were dropping down on their knees. I’m live-streaming. Next thing I know the officers dive in and are pointing their weapons. They were pointing to where the shots were. A lady got shot, like, 10 feet away from me. Another person was struck. It was pretty crazy,” Dangelo said.

“I had an asthma attack because of all the gunpowder,” said Dangelo, who sometimes uses a respirator and who has lived downtown for years and experienced riots following the first Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup victory and Denver Broncos Super Bowl victories.

“This was pretty, I don’t know how to put it into words. … The police officers were, like, diving down in front of me reaching for their weapons. I was trying to figure out what was going on. I thought they were pointing weapons at me. I thought they thought maybe I had a gun,” Dangelo said.

Dangelo saw bullet casings near where he crouched, shooting video and photos that police later asked him to share as evidence to help with their investigation.

“It was sad. … Something needs to be done,” he said. “I did not expect a major shooting with so many victims.”

Charlie Willeford came from Parker after the game to join the celebration downtown. He was near the intersection when the shots rang out.

“I was just around that area. Everyone was having a good time,” he said. “Next thing you know, we just heard continuous gunfire. Everyone sat still for quite a bit because there were a lot of fireworks before. Then the whole mood changed.”

People pushed each other as they fled and tripped over electric scooters. He later saw a bleeding man being carried by police.

“It just sucks — it was supposed to be a good night,” he said. “Everyone was being peaceful. Just a couple of people messed it up.”

The morning after the shooting, stains that appeared to be blood still were spread across the sidewalk along Market Street between 20th and 21st streets. Spilled food, broken glass bottles and abandoned scooters littered the sidewalks in the area.

A power washer could be seen cleaning off a patio table in front of ViewHouse, directly across the street from the largest blood spatter, and crews from the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure were repairing the street poles at the intersection of 20th and Market, replacing signs and lights after people climbed on them during the celebrations.

Down the street near Market and 19th Street, more stains that appeared to be blood covered the sidewalk.

Before the shooting, Denver police, anticipating possible post-game trouble, “had staffed up significantly,” Schepman said. In the crowd near 20th and Market, he said, police were dispersing “small fights” before the gunfire.

Thomas said careful planning made a difference.

“What we couldn’t have planned for was a drug deal right in the middle of the celebration,” he said.

“We were steps away from this incident so our mere presence didn’t stop this incident from occurring,” he added later.

Other incidents reported nearby downtown overnight included smashing out vehicle windows and a separate shooting on Tremont Street, which left a man hospitalized. Police were investigating the circumstances that led up to that shooting. Denver City Clerk Paul Lopez said in a posting on Twitter that his offices in the city’s Webb building were damaged.

Denver Public Safety Director Armando Saldate lauded police officers who, on video surveillance showing the shooting, can be seen running “without hesitation” toward victims, “rendering care immediately — life-saving care.” Saldate, Thomas and other city officials were in a police command center and watched the incident play out live on video feeds.

According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, there have been 291 mass shootings in the United States so far this year. Gun violence deaths overall had reached 19,161, the archive data drawn from law enforcement agencies showed.

Multiple shootings have taken place near the intersection over the last several years. Thomas said “a lot of violent incidents” had occurred in the Lower Downtown nightlife district.

“There is certainly the potential for danger any time there is a large gathering,” Thomas said. “There are far too many guns in our community today. … I know there was celebratory gunfire throughout the city.”

In Denver, a parade is planned for Thursday morning downtown featuring Nuggets basketball players on floats. City officials said residents should feel safe attending the parade and there will be a significant police presence along the route.

“It’s our intention that it will be a very safe event,” Saldate said. “I will have my own family there so I hope it will be a very safe event for all.”

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is looking into this matter, along with the sheriff in Custer County. Amos resides in a modest wood-paneled home northeast of town.

“The Custer County Sheriff’s Office is the lead on it. We are just assisting them. It is an open investigation right now,” CBI spokeswoman Lisa Kohlbrenner confirmed on Friday. She said Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith requested the bureau’s assistance on May 15.

Smith on Friday confirmed, in a news release, that local authorities received reports that Amos could have been the victim of a crime.

“We are thoroughly investigating that allegation and have consulted with our partners at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Department of Human Services,” Smith said. “We have also been in contact with Mr. Amos and his attorney.”

Amos was in a Tennessee hospital as a patient.

Westcliffe residents said they’re praying for him. “We really want him to get better. We’re so lucky he is part of our community,” county spokeswoman Jennifer Kriegh said.

Longtime friend Les Franklin of Denver, who formerly managed Amos as an actor from 1970 to 1972, said he spoke with him this week by phone.

“He’s doing good now. The doctor says he’s doing good. He was in really bad shape when he got there,” Franklin said, lauding friends in Westcliffe for taking Amos to doctors in Pueblo and Colorado Springs.

While Amos has been interested in acting work, he also has relied on artificial oxygen in recent years. Franklin said Amos now may move to New Jersey, where he grew up the son of an auto mechanic, to receive closer care.

“He needs 24-hour care,” he said. “He loved sitting on the front porch of that house looking out at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. He loved that. He liked the people around Westcliffe. They were all kind to him and embraced him. There’s not one person in Westcliffe who ever mistreated John,” Franklin said.

A daughter went public with accusations that he was the victim of abuse but Amos reportedly has rejected this, according to reports in several entertainment-oriented publications. A prolific actor who played the adult Kunta Kinte in the 1977 miniseries Roots and later starred in “American Dad” and “Good Times,” Amos once had homes in California and New Jersey but has been living for about six years in Colorado. Decades ago, he played football at Colorado State University and graduated with a degree in sociology, then signed with the Denver Broncos and briefly played professional football with other teams in the 1960s before beginning his career as an actor.

Edgewater is a small city just west of Denver.

Other adult male initially left scene but called 911 to report his involvement and is currently being detained by @COEdgewaterPD.

— Jeffco Sheriff (@jeffcosheriffco) May 3, 2023

The shooting happened around 9:40 a.m. in one of the six or so Tesla charging stations in the parking lot of the Edgewater Public Market, in the 5500 block of West 20th Avenue in Edgewater, Jefferson County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jenny Fulton said at the scene.

One man initially left the scene and then called 911 to report his involvement in the fight. Police arrested him later at his residence on Xavier Street in Denver.

The victim, who drove a Tesla, died at 10:20 a.m. after he was taken to a hospital, Fulton said. Both men had a vehicle in the parking lot, she said.

“Edgewater police don’t know yet what they were fighting over, just that it occurred in a Tesla charging station area. It was in that Tesla charging station,” she said.

“We are looking into why there was an altercation in the first place.”

We’re assisting @COEdgewaterPD with a shooting in the 5500 block of W 20th Ave. Initial info indicates 2 adult males were involved in an altercation that led to one being shot. The victim has since been pronounced deceased and the investigation is now a homicide. pic.twitter.com/jPH5JEQm8A

— Jeffco Sheriff (@jeffcosheriffco) May 3, 2023

Federal operators of the Glen Canyon Dam atop the Grand Canyon opened jets to begin this surge before sunrise Monday, sending what they described as “a pulse” of water whooshing through the Colorado River as it curves through the base of the canyon.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said they’ll maintain the surge until Thursday evening, ensuring a flow for 72 hours at 39,500 cubic feet per second of water.

This “High Flow Experiment” will require 270,000 acre-feet of water, federal officials said — enough to sustain more than half a million households for a year. By comparison, Denver Water typically captures 290,000 acre-feet of water, or more than 94 billion gallons, from rain and snow in Colorado over an entire year for city supplies.

The water gushing out of dam jets this week normally would have flowed gradually over the month of April out of Lake Powell into the river. Eventually, the water will end up in Lake Mead, the key supply for Arizona, California and Nevada.

Federal officials based their recent decision to allow the simulated floods on the relatively heavy high mountain snowpack this year along headwaters of the Colorado River, which begins west of Denver near Grand Lake.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest snow survey data this week showed snowpack in the upper Colorado River Basin at 129% of the 1991-2020 norm. Federal hydrologists have estimated 14.7 million acre-feet of water this summer will flow from Colorado, Wyoming and Utah into Lake Powell.

Since 2018, federal dam operators have declined to release water for simulated flood surges due to long-term drought and anxieties around record-low reservoir water levels, linked by scientists to climate warming and aridification of the Southwest — transformations that have left Lake Powell and Lake Mead less than a quarter full. Yet the nation’s 1992 Grand Canyon Protection Act requires efforts to ensure ecological health in the canyon, and officials established a program that includes simulated floods.

Federal officials this week declined to comment as water surged.

Dry times across the Southwest, and higher temperatures that over the past two decades reduced overall annual water in the Colorado River, have forced federal dam operators to prioritize keeping as much as possible in Lake Powell. Simulated floods for ecological purposes in the Grand Canyon became a casualty.

Last week, the environmental advocacy group American Rivers declared the Colorado River the nation’s most “endangered” river due to a lack of flooding. This week, American Rivers leaders applauded the surge as “a critical step” toward reviving the Grand Canyon.

“The damage to the ecosystems in the Grand Canyon has been substantial” over the past five years, American Rivers spokesman Sinjin Eberle said, describing harm caused by dams, which block sand and other sediments essential for aquatic life and canyon habitat.

Clear, colder-than-natural water released from the dam atop the canyon year after year “is eroding sand off beaches every day. Aquatic life and vegetation depend on those beaches. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of rocks and tamarisk,” Eberle said, referring to invasive shrubs that thrive and out-compete native species when dams lead to regularized water flows.

In Colorado, water policy officials declined to take a position on the simulated flood. But they acknowledged the environmental benefits in the canyon.

“The intent of this release is to pick up existing sediment in the canyon and deposit it downstream,” said Michelle Garrison, the state’s representative in a federal stakeholders advisory group that is part of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program.

Denver Water “is supportive of the environmental flow program” in the Grand Canyon, utility manager Jim Lochhead said, lauding the effort by multiple agencies that “come together to shift water releases — not increase overall releases — in order to mimic spring hydrology through the basin, which helps to improve beaches, sandbars and aquatic habitats.”

In 1963, the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam atop the Grand Canyon disrupted essential natural processes and created Lake Powell. Sand and other sediments that for centuries moved downriver, scouring surfaces and creating beaches, suddenly were backed up on the reservoir side of that dam. And the regularized, steady flows of clear water, devoid of sediment, gradually are transforming the canyon.

During the simulated spring flood, U.S. Geological Survey scientists are monitoring the effects on fish populations and aquatic insects.

At the Grand Canyon Trust, officials devoted to protecting the river and canyon called on federal authorities to find a way to conduct future simulated floods — even during dry times.

“We long have prioritized hydropower. We long have prioritized water users. The environment is always the last priority,” the trust’s water advocacy director Jen Pelz said. “We need to figure out how to balance competing interests in a way that honors the environment.”

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This is the practice commonly known as “juice-jacking.”

“Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices,” FBI officials announced Thursday in a tweet.

“Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead,” the FBI officials advised.

The free public charging stations have multiplied in recent years as operators of airports, including Denver International Airport, increase services to accommodate growing numbers of people in transit. Hotel operators and shopping center managers also have installed the charging portals, and FBI officials warned these too could lead to the installation of unwanted surveillance software and malware onto computers and smartphones.

Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centers. Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices. Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead. pic.twitter.com/9T62SYen9T

— FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) April 6, 2023

Denver International Airport officials on Thursday said they are wise to this activity, known among operations crew members as “juice-jacking,” but that they weren’t aware of any reports of trouble at DIA, airport spokeswoman Ashley Forest said.

DIA “has methods of determining whether a public charging port has been tampered with and the ability to take any tampered port out of service,” Forest said.

“However, the best defense against this type of attack on any public charging port remains within the smartphone itself,” she said, referring to Apple and Android “updates” to their smartphone software “to prevent or alert users to this type of attack when using a public charging port.”

A student at Denver’s East High School shot and wounded two administrators Wednesday while the teen was undergoing a required daily search for weapons, then fled the building, authorities said.

Denver police identified the suspect as 17-year-old Austin Lyle and said he was wanted on suspicion of attempted homicide.

Later in the day, police located Lyle’s vehicle in Park County and then, around 8:15 p.m., found his body nearby. Park County Coroner David A. Kintz Jr. said Thursday that preliminary autopsy findings confirm Lyle died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The latest incident of gun violence at East in recent weeks inflamed frustration about safety at the school, where students have this year endured the shooting death of a classmate, threats of violence and lockdowns.

East hasn’t had Denver police assigned to the school since Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education removed all school resource officers following the national reckoning over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

But DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero suggested Wednesday that could change in the wake of the attack. He announced two armed officers will be at East for the rest of the school year, and said he was “committing” to have an armed officer at each comprehensive high school in the district — despite the fact that it “likely violates” school board policy.

Students and parents identified the victims of Wednesday’s shooting as Dean of Culture Eric Sinclair and Jerald Mason, a restorative practice coordinator in the dean’s office.

Denver Health confirmed that both men were patients at the hospital Wednesday. Mason was listed in good condition and Sinclair in serious condition, hospital spokesperson Amber D’Angelo said.

The shooting Wednesday happened at about 9:50 a.m. in an office area away from students, officials said. Lyle was undergoing a search for weapons when a gun was discovered. The student then fired shots and “was able to get out of the school,” Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said.

Lyle, who previously was “removed” from Overland High School in Aurora over discipline issues, is required to be searched when he arrives at school every morning as part of what DPS officials described as a pre-existing safety plan because of his past behavior. But administrators had never before found a gun on him, police and school officials said.

Police said they took the unusual step of publicly identifying the juvenile after the attack “due to the public safety concern.”

“We don’t have any sense of where he is. We know where he lives,” Thomas said at a morning news briefing, lamenting “a very troubling situation” at East High School.

“The screaming was so horrible”

Senior Eliza Romero was in the school nurse’s office when she heard four bangs come from the room next door.

At first, she wasn’t sure whether they were gunshots. The 18-year-old had been wearing headphones and the noise was so much quieter than the bangs she heard last month when a 16-year-old student was shot outside of the school.

Romero looked to another student who was also in the room to see whether they also heard the noise. That student had a panicked look on their face. They’d both heard gunshots.

“Right as we had that realization, I saw people flooding out of the dean’s office,” Romero said. “I saw people screaming.”

A security officer sprinted into the nurse’s office and locked the door. Romero and the other student ran into a bathroom connected to the office and hid in a stall.

From their hiding spots, the students could hear screaming, police sirens and noise from walkie-talkies, Romero said.

“We were both just in there panicking, trying to help each other out,” she said.

After about 30 minutes, police officers came into the nurse’s office yelling, asking if anyone was in the room. They escorted the two students to the auditorium, where they stayed briefly before being moved to a classroom, Romero said.

“Hearing it happen and hearing the screaming was so horrible,” she added. “I haven’t really processed it at this point but it was so horrible.”

“We are all East High Angels”

Students said the two wounded administrators were both well-liked at school. Janaiya Hopper, an 18-year-old senior, saw them before a school assembly Wednesday. They wanted to hear about her 18th birthday, which she had celebrated on Friday.

“They were telling me they were so proud of me and they can’t wait to see me graduate,” Hopper said.

One administrator was in critical condition undergoing surgery when initially hospitalized Wednesday, Thomas said.

Paramedics were already in the school when the shooting happened because a student was suffering an allergic reaction, Mayor Michael Hancock said. Those paramedics were able to treat the shooting victims immediately, he said. The mayor called that “lucky” and said the quick medical treatment might have saved a life.

Gov. Jared Polis wished the administrators speedy recoveries while speaking at a news conference about new legislation at the Capitol.

“Today, we are all East High Angels,” Polis said.

School officials placed East on lockdown following the shooting, and students later were let out during a controlled release. Classes at East were canceled for the remainder of the week, Marrero said during a news briefing.

Parents waited outside yellow police tape at the school Wednesday to collect students, craning their necks to spot their children.

“I’m sad, frustrated, upset, alarmed,” said Julie Siekmeier, a parent of an East High School senior. “Although the kids are almost numb to it.”

Jamela Brown hugs her 18-year-old daughter, Janaiya, outside East High School. “I don’t want to come back to school,” Janaiya said as tears streamed. pic.twitter.com/rR3M8hVRIX

— Noelle Phillips (@Noelle_Phillips) March 22, 2023

Recent shootings, threats at East

Students at East have spoken out in recent weeks about no longer feeling safe on campus after their classmate was fatally shot about a month ago. Luis Garcia, a junior, was sitting in his car near East when he was shot on Feb. 13. The 16-year-old died from his injuries more than two weeks later, on March 1.

After the February shooting, the school experienced multiple lockdowns and other alerts, students said. A weapon was found on campus the day after students returned to class.

Students have called on Denver Public Schools to respond more aggressively to the threat of violence. Earlier this month, they also walked out of their classrooms and to the Colorado State Capitol to advocate for gun legislation and safer schools.

“I feel like it’s something that everybody has to worry about here a lot,” said student Anae Hernandez, 15. “Because this is not like something that just happens once in a while. This is a recurring theme and it’s not something that should be going on.”

She was outside the school and walked up to see an ambulance and one of the wounded faculty members on a stretcher Wednesday. Someone told her there had been a shooting, so she ran to a nearby 7-Eleven convenience store to hide.

“It’s scary,” she said.

Marrero said two armed guards will be stationed at the high school when classes resume after spring break, and those guards will stay through the end of the school year.

“We’re looking forward to expanding that conversation to see how we can reestablish a relationship (with Denver police),” he said.

Denver’s elected school board voted in 2020 to remove police school resource officers from the district’s schools, arguing that having police in schools harmed students of color and perpetuated the school-to-prison pipeline.

The board issued a statement Wednesday evening saying it supported Marrero’s decision “to work in partnership with local law enforcement to create safer learning spaces across Denver Public Schools for the remainder of this school year.”

The statement did not address the future of school resource officers in DPS, and board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán did not respond to questions on the issue. The board is expected to hold a news conference Thursday.

UPDATE: Your #Denver Police Department continues working in conjunction with local, state and federal law enforcement partners to locate the suspect from today’s shooting at Denver East High School. Due to the public safety concern that he poses, the Department is identifying… pic.twitter.com/RmwO940Qug

— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice) March 22, 2023

Prior discipline, removal from Overland

Lyle, the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting, had transferred to East from another district, Marrero said. Officials did not reveal why the student was being searched daily.

He previously attended Overland High in Aurora.

“He was disciplined for violation of board policies and was removed” from the school last academic year, Cherry Creek Schools spokesperson Lauren Snell said. She declined to say which policies were violated.

Marrero said safety plans for students are enacted in response to “past educational and also behavioral experiences,” adding that it’s a common practice throughout Colorado’s public schools.

But daily pat-downs are rare, said Matthew McClain with the Colorado School Counselor Association, and Franci Crepeau-Hobson, a University of Colorado Denver professor specializing in school violence prevention.

“Clearly they were concerned,” said Crepeau-Hobson. “I can’t imagine they’d do that if there wasn’t a history of the kid carrying a weapon for whatever reason.”

School safety plans are often imposed after students exhibit threatening or suicidal behavior, said Christine Harms, director of the Colorado School Safety Resource Center. A team that can include counselors, administrators and police officers assesses the possible threat and develops a safety plan, which can include mental health support, more supervision and searches, she said.

Pretty chaotic scene at 17th and Esplanade, where students are reuniting with their parents pic.twitter.com/ofUrtHf87C

— Shelly Bradbury (@ShellyBradbury) March 22, 2023

Rising teen violence in Denver

Denver teens have increasingly become both perpetrators and victims of gun violence over the last five years.

In 2022, five juveniles were arrested in connection to homicides and 11 others were arrested in connection to non-fatal shootings. Twelve juveniles were killed in homicides last year and 42 were injured in non-fatal shootings.

Gun possession by a minor has become the most common charge in Denver’s juvenile pre-trial services in recent years.The Denver District Attorney’s Office has filed an increasing number of charges for juveniles in possession of handguns. In 2022, the office filed 115 cases — up 47% from the 78 cases filed in 2017 and up 150% from the 46 filed in 2016.

Experts have said that teens often arm themselves out of fear for their safety.

Ben Roy, father to a senior, said this year has been “relentless” for East students.

“It feels like every other week there’s been a perimeter lockdown. It’s just constant,” he said outside the police line on Wednesday.

“I think what scares them, for my son, is how little he reacts now,” he said. “He’s grown numb to it and at other times anxious. I hate this is the world we’ve made for them.”

Denver Post reporter Sam Tabachnik and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The widely used labeling system purported to predict effects of different “strains” — “indica” (relaxed high), “sativa” (energetic high), and “hybrid” — obscures the diversity of chemicals cannabis consumers inhale, according to the study, which was published Thursday in the online science journal PLOS One.

CU information scientists analyzed labels that companies provided for an online platform called Leafly, which lets consumers see a more complete listing of contents in marijuana products. They compared this labeling with the commonly used system.

“The prevailing labeling system is not an effective or safe way to provide information about these products,” said University of Colorado information sciences professor Brian Keegan, who co-authored the study with Daniela Vergara, now at Cornell University.

For example, imagine a woman walking into a liquor story to buy a bottle of wine labeled Cabernet who then finds it to be Pinot Grigio.

“You would, justifiably, be upset,” Keegan said. “In the cannabis industry, those kinds of mismatches can happen frequently.”

The researchers recommend creation of a standardized “weed labeling system” similar to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s nutrition facts labels on food products.

Their study stands out as perhaps the largest so far exploring the chemical composition of marijuana products. A decade after marijuana legalization in Colorado, product labeling has emerged as an issue amid a push by companies for greater professionalization.

Marijuana products heavily marketed to consumers contain dozens of chemical compounds with potential psychoactive or medicinal effects. CU’s researchers contend understanding these chemicals is crucial.

Government regulators of the industry in Colorado and other states where marijuana has been legalized require companies to disclose dosages of the psychoactive THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol) chemicals. This focus led to wide use of the indica, sativa and hybrid labels to distinguish different strains offered to consumers.

“But that’s not the most important thing about the cannabis that is consumed. There’s a whole set of chemicals, beyond THC, that explain why different strains are different and why people might experience different effects,” Keegan said.

Companies aren’t obligated to list compounds such as terpenes and flavonoids that play a greater role determining taste, smell and effects. The CU researchers concluded marijuana strains more accurately could be distinguished using different categories. One could encompass products high in terpenes called caryophyllene and limonene, the researchers said. Another group could contain elevated myrcene and pinene. Another could be categorized for high terpinolene and myrcene.

Groups including the Institute for Safe Medication Practices previously have called for national regulation of medical marijuana labeling to ensure states can protect consumers.

“If you were trying to make dietary decisions using labels that only listed calories and fat, that would hamper your dietary decisions,” and the current labeling of marijuana products “is a profound disserve to consumers,” Keegan said.

“It is a cause for concern, particularly if you are treating this plant as a medicine,” he said. “It would be great to have labels that convey the whole rainbow of chemicals that are present in cannabis.”