Yesterday, we reported the horrifying news that a man had opened fire on a group of middle school children at Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colorado. Click here to read the initial report.
More information has since emerged regarding the suspect. He is 32-year-old Colorado resident Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood, and he has a violent and criminal history. This includes domestic violence, assault, menacing, driving under the influence and motor vehicle theft. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance today at 10AM to face multiple charges.
Reports say Eastwood has been to Deer Creek school before, and went inside before coming back out to start shooting. No motive has yet been hypothesized as to why he would target the children. The two children who were shot are pictured here.
13-year-old Reagan Weber was shot in the arm and has since been released from the hospital. 14-year-old Matt Thieu was shot in the chest and, as of late last night, remained in critical condition. He is now at Children's Hospital in Denver.
Steve Potter, Deer Creek bus driver, witnessed the heroics of math teacher Dr. David Benke as he tackled the gunman while reloading, preventing him from getting off any more shots. He subdued him until police arrived.
"Dr. Benke was out there at the time the school was being let out. It looked to me like he heard the shot and decided to react accordingly," said Potter. "There was a little bit of a wresting match for about 5 seconds or so," before Benke had disarmed the gunman.
"As many school districts have learned, you can prepare, you can train, but I don't think you're every really prepared for something like this to happen," Lynn Setzer with the Jefferson County School District said. "In terms of being ready, we train our staff members for a number of different scenarios. This is one of them."
"It's hard to explain why they would target innocent victims," said Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink, who was among the hundreds of law enforcement agents who responded to the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. "It's just mind-boggling to me why someone would do that."
The gunman was walking through a middle school parking lot and taking shots at students with a hunting rifle as terrified teenagers ran for their lives. He had just wounded two students and seemed ready to unleash more violence when a math teacher named David Benke sprung into action.
Police gather outside Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colo., where a gunman shot two students and was tackled by a math teacher.
Math teacher David Benke was being hailed as a hero for tackling the suspected school gunman.
Benke confronted the 32-year-old gunman, tackled him and pinned him to the ground with the help of another teacher, stopping what could have been a much more violent encounter in a city all too familiar with tragic school shootings. The shooting on Tuesday afternoon occurred less than three miles from where the Columbine High School massacre happened nearly 11 years ago.
"Unfortunately he got another round off before I could grab him," Benke said. "He figured out that he wasn't going to be able to get another round chambered before I got to him so he dropped the gun and then we were kind of struggling around trying to get him subdued."
The two students survived and one remained hospitalized.
Police said they aren't immediately sure about what motivated Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood to target Deer Creek Middle School just after classes had ended for the day. Eastwood has an arrest record in Colorado dating back to 1996 for menacing, assault, domestic violence and driving under the influence, and he is believed to have a history of mental issues.
Sheriff thanks teacher
Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink praised Benke and called him a hero, and the math teacher's status seems to be growing by the minute. A Facebook page called "Dr. David Benke.. A TRUE hero!" quickly picked up more than 1,000 fans by Wednesday morning.
Benke, the father of 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old girl, fought back tears after Mink thanked him.
"Believe me when I say, I think he stopped what could have been a more tragic event than it was," Mink said.
The victims, students Reagan Webber and Matt Thieu, were both treated at Littleton Adventist Hospital, where spokeswoman Christine Alexander said Webber was later released. Thieu was transferred to The Children's Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition late Tuesday.
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.
Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team, was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.
"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "'Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."
He said another teacher was quickly on the scene and both of them pinned the gunman to the ground. Eastwood was armed with a bolt-action rifle.
"I basically have my arms and legs wrapped around him, (the other teacher) has his forearm around his front and we were basically trying to get the guy to quit struggling."
"I talked to him while we were on the ground," Benke added. "I was underneath him and his face was pretty close to mine. I asked him, 'Why did you do this? Were you a student here?'
"He either didn't respond or his responses didn't make a whole lot of sense," Benke 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 that sounded like an M-80 firecracker. 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.
Potter said he saw Benke grab the suspect so he and another man jumped on the gunman and helped hold him until police arrived.
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