“Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis,” said the American Academy of Pediatrics. And so far, the U.S. continues to prove this argument right.
On September 10, 2025, Evergreen High School, located in Colorado, suffered a school shooting, forever altering the lives of students, parents, and faculty on campus.
Around lunch, at approximately 12:42 p.m., Desmond Holly opened fire both inside and outside the school, feasting on his innocent peers and teachers. He was sixteen and attended the school.
In the process, Holly managed to shoot two students, both of whom are still in critical condition and are hospitalized, before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life at the scene. It was reported that no officers fired at the shooter or the school.
As the shooter crept around the halls in the minutes after he started shooting, armed with only a handgun and a flawed call to action, it was reported that he had to reload multiple times, stocked to the teeth with ammunition. Holly came prepared, and many have claimed his extremist views inspired the attack. Other sources also say Holly held Neo-Nazi views and was active on TikTok’s “True Crime Community.”
His motive is still unknown. However, law enforcement is combing through Holly’s locker, home, and phone to better understand why the student would open fire on his fellow classmates.
Students and staff both found refuge in classrooms as they hid from the shooter, a now potent antagonist running amok in nightmares, pulling them from sleep.
The school also managed to enforce a brief lockdown, which saved the lives of more than 900 students who attend Evergreen. Doors and windows became a “roadblock,” said Jacki Kelley, a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, located in Colorado. “…he couldn’t get to those kids.”
Evergreen High School shut down for the rest of the week, September 11 and 12, and in the time since, has focused on rebuilding its campus, tending to shattered windows, battered doors, and lockers littered with bullet holes.
Columbine High School is twenty miles away from Evergreen High School, and connections have been drawn between the two shootings. Columbine High School is the site of one of the most infamous and deadliest school massacres, and many have said Holly’s acts mimic those of the gunman at Columbine; the sixteen-year-old wore a t-shirt with “WRATH” written on the back of it, similar to the design of a Columbine High School shooter in 1999.
In the days following the attack, Kelley also made a statement, asking the media to give the students and their families space. “Let them grieve,” she said. “Let them deal with what they’re dealing with, the fact that their student or their loved one was shot.”
Colorado Governor Jared Polis also made a statement on X: “My heart is with the students, families, and entire Evergreen community after today’s tragic shooting… No young person should have to carry this kind of trauma, and help is available.”
The attack also occurred a few hours prior to Charlie Kirk’s assassination in Utah, but no connections between the two assaults were found. Both are considered to be school shootings, as students at Utah Valley University are majorly affected by the homicide.
The United States is known for school shootings, averaging around 330 per year. The shooting at Evergreen High School marks the forty-seventh report of gun violence on a school campus for 2025, as stated by CNN.