Six Colorado teens shot in drive-by at park, multiple suspects at-large, police say

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Six Colorado high school students were shot during a drive-by shooting while at a park Monday and the suspects are being sought, authorities said. 

The shooting occurred at Nome Park, near Aurora Central High School in the Denver suburb of Aurora, and injured five teens who ranged from 14 to 17 years of age. Another teen, 18, later went to a hospital with minor injuries, Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson told reporters. 

All the victims had non-life threatening injuries but one child was in emergency surgery. School resource officers responded to the scene and applied a tourniquet on the teen in surgery, Wilson said. 

Aurora Central High School. Five teenagers were shot Monday at a park across from the school, police said.  (Google Maps)

The shooting occurred via drive-by and there may have been shooters on foot, officials said. Wilson said there are multiple suspects at large. Investigators were not sure if they were also high school students, as well. 

"I need us all to be outraged by what happened here today," Wilson said. "When I got the call my heart dropped. This is a public health crisis."

An unidentified man told Fox affiliate KDVR-TV that he was home near the park when he heard at least 30 shots. 

"As soon as I heard the shots, I hit the deck," he said. "There's always shootings over here on this block." Fox News has reached out to the police department and Aurora Public Schools. 

Investigators recovered multiple gunshot rounds from different calibers, Wilson said. She said it was not clear if the shooting was gang-related but officers were ruling nothing out. 

Nome Park (Google Maps)

The school campus was put on a secure perimeter, police said. 

The department initially said the school was placed on lockdown before issuing a correction. It did not describe how a secure perimeter is different from a lockdown. 

"We are disgusted by this and other senseless acts of violence against our children who are the future of our community," Aurora Public Schools said in a statement. 

The local news outlet said Nome Park was the site of a gang-related shooting in 2019 in which a teenager is now charged with murder. Authorities will work with the school district to station more officers at the school as well as counselors, Wilson said. 

An Aurora Public Schools football field.  (Ayrora Public Schools)

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"We need to get through to our kids and figure out a way to stop this," Wilson said. "There's a violence crisis across the nation right now and so I think we all need to pay attention."