Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

US Marines

Colorado school shooting hero now officially a Marine

By Robert Gearty Fox News
Published
close
Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 7 Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 7

Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 7 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com

A Colorado teen who helped stop a school shooting in May has graduated from Marine Corps boot camp, where he is said to have further distinguished himself as his platoon's honor man.

Pfc. Brendan Bialy, 18, of Castle Rock, graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Training Sept. 20, Stars & Stripes reported.

Bialy tackled one of two shooters at STEM School outside Denver on May 7.

Eight students were injured and Bialy’s friend Kendrick Castillo, 18, was killed. Bialy acted when he saw Castillo charge the gunman.

YOUNG MARINE HOPEFUL HELPED STOP COLORADO SCHOOL SHOOTING THAT LEFT 1 DEAD, 8 INJURED

Pfc. Brendan Bialy completed Marine Corps boot camp last month. 

Pfc. Brendan Bialy completed Marine Corps boot camp last month.  (Grace Kindred/U.S. Marine Corps)

At a news conference after the shooting, Bialy said he tackled the gunman and fought back out of pure instinct.

He had signed up to be a Marine under the service’s delayed entry program and went to boot camp after graduating.

SUSPECTED COLORADO SCHOOL SHOOTER PRESSURED INTO COMMITTING ATTACK, LAWYER SAYS

“My thoughts on becoming a Marine were nothing but reinforced after the shooting,” he said in a video statement last week. “What I saw that day was complete and total malevolence, bad overcome by good.”

Bialy graduated from boot camp as his training platoon’s guide, according to Stars & Stripes. During training, he earned a meritorious promotion to private first class.

“I don’t think recruit training changed Bialy,” said his drill instructor, Staff Sgt. Marcus Chestnut, according to the news outlet. “He is who he was when he first got here. I think we just gave him some additional attributes that made him a stronger man and a basically trained Marine.”