Students Describe 'Dashing' Out Of Arapahoe High School After Shooting
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - A student apparently killed himself inside Arapahoe High School after shooting and injuring two other students Friday afternoon, and it was a traumatic experience for the thousands inside the building at the time.
Whitney Riley described to CBS4 the terror she experienced at 12:30 p.m. when the shooting happened.
"What I heard ... was a shot go off and at first we were all like 'What was that?' Every student was really confused," she said. "We heard two more shots and then all of a sudden we just booked it. We ran to a sprinkler room and hid in there and locked the door."
Two sophomores, students Maddie and Jackie, told CBS4 there was confusion in their History classroom, too.
"All of a sudden we heard this really loud noise and we thought a table had dropped or something. We didn't know it was a gunshot," they said. "Then it happened two more times and you could just see the look on our teacher's face that something wasn't right and she immediately told us to run to the corner and get down."
When it became clear there was really a violent incident going on, students stayed calm despite the obvious fear they were experiencing.
"It was scary but I was calm the entire time until we were released to go out," Riley said.
"My stomach sunk and I felt like I was going to cry and I was really afraid for my life and thinking what would happen next," Maddie said.
Riley said she was immediately concerned about people getting hurt.
"I want to know why the shooter wanted to do it. Why he decided to do it on this day and harm an innocent school," she said.
Maddie and Jackie said their evacuation procedure included running out of the school.
"We unlocked the door and dashed out and we saw a whole bunch of kids and a cop directing us out of the room," Jackie said. "We were in going to go to the King Soopers nearby."
