AURORA (NewsNation Now) — Six teenagers, including an 18-year-old, were taken to a hospital after a shooting near a Colorado high school. Police expect all the victims to survive.
Multiple rounds fired from different guns were found at the scene, and it is possible some rounds were fired by someone on foot, police chief Vanessa Wilson said.
Police officers assigned to the school were the first to respond to the shooting and saved the life of one victim by applying a tourniquet, Wilson said. That student later underwent emergency surgery, she said.
Wilson said she’s relieved the students are expected to survive but said gun violence is 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.
NewsNation affiliate KDVR reported five of the victims were 14 to 17 years old. The 18-year-old arrived at the hospital in a private vehicle.
The shooting happened near Nome Park, which is just north of Aurora Central High School. KDVR reported three aggravated assaults have occurred at that park this year, including one involving a gun. Three more gun-related aggravated assaults were reported across the street. In 2019, Dangelo Domena, a minor, was charged with attempted first-degree murder at the park.
One witness told KDVR they heard between 30 and 50 shots. Nobody has been arrested.
It’s unclear if the teens attended the school, or if any part of this happened on school grounds.
The shooting comes after an 18-year-old died after being shot about 5 miles away on Sunday night.
A shooting was also reported Friday in the parking lot of an Aurora mall, but police only found several shell casings when they arrived.
The school is less than four miles from the site of a movie theater mass shooting in 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people.
The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate KDVR contributed to this report.