Around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, officers from the Commerce City Police Department and other Denver metro agencies rushed to the school for reports that someone had called 911 to make a bomb threat. That person also claimed the school was an active shooting scene with injured parties inside. The school was placed on lockdown and hundreds of law enforcement officers immediately entered the school, going room to room, clearing the building, believing there may be an active shooter still at large and multiple victims. They found what appeared to be a blood trail in several areas of the school. After an exhaustive search, officers determined there were no victims and there was no credible threat. We did, however, find two students who were covered in what looked like fake blood— the same substance officers had encountered in parts of the building.
CCPD detained, interviewed, and then arrested those two students on the above-mentioned charges.
“For many, calls of this nature are their worst nightmare. Whether a first responder, a parent, a teacher or a student— most will never forget this day,” CCPD Chief Darrel Guadnola said. “The notion that this call may have been part of a prank is highly disturbing and pulled valuable law enforcement resources away from real emergencies in the Denver metro.”
We appreciate our neighboring agencies that assisted in today’s response: the Adams County Sheriff's Office, Colorado State Patrol, Westminster Police Department, Thornton Police Department, RTD Police Department, Arvada Police Department, Aurora Police Department, ATF, and the FBI. We also want to thank the Adams 14 School District for their collaboration throughout the response.