Dear Editor:

On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, around 8:49 a.m., Law Enforcement deputies and officers responded to the school on one of the most feared calls we can ever respond to an active threat at the school.

At about 8:49 a.m. dispatch received a call from a person who said they were in front of the school with an AR-15 and a pipe bomb. The caller said he was going to kill students. During the call a perceived gunshot could be heard by the dispatcher. As she tried to get more information from the caller, he hung up the phone. Just before he hung up another possible gunshot was heard and screaming in the background. The dispatcher immediately sent out alert tones to all Gilpin Law Enforcement agencies advising them of the information. She attempted to call into the school without success due to a fiberoptic cable being cut the day before. She was unable to notify the school to go into a lockdown.

Black Hawk Police Department arrived first with six officers to include Chief Moriarty. They immediately ran to the front door, knowing that the gunman said he was out in front of the school. Shortly after they arrived deputies from Gilpin County arrived on scene and went to the secondary atrium door. Each of the deputies and police officers entered the school immediately and began to secure the hallways. A Black Hawk Officer found the Superintendent and instructed him to put the school in lockdown. This was about 7 minutes after the original dispatch call. The school was secured by law enforcement and students were then evacuated to the Rec Center for reunification with their parents.

Gilpin county School was one of 26 schools in Colorado that were attacked by this caller. The same caller made threats in schools in Ohio, New York and California last week. We are working closely with the FBI to identify the caller and bring him to justice.

The best laid out plans for the reunification process did not go as well as I had expected. We use the information from the “I Love You Guys Foundation” (iloveuguys.org) as guidelines for our Standard Response Protocol and our Reunification Protocol. There are many lessons we (law enforcement) learned during this event. We are already in the process of addressing and fixing these gaps that have been identified.

Communication is one of the major factors that comes to the forefront in our debriefings and in our community meeting. The cutting of the fiberoptic line significantly affected this communication issue. We have already started making strides in fixing the lack of communication in keeping our community informed. There will be more information to share with our school district and out community in the near future.

This was a very traumatic event that affected a large number of students, staff, parents and residents in our community. We recognize there are various levels of trauma associated with this event. I would recommend individuals reach out to their primary care physician or contact Colorado Crisis Services at 1-844-493-8255 (24 hours a day) if you continue to struggle.

The communication concerns cannot over shadow the exceptional work all the men and women from Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office, Black Hawk Police, Fire Departments, Colorado State Patrol, Colorado Division of Gaming, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Timberline Fire Department did to take care of our number one priority, the safety and security of our staff and students at the school.

The dispatcher who took the original call and several other Sheriff’s Office staff had children at the school. The Sheriff’s Office dispatch personnel did an exceptional job in very difficult circumstances. During this event there were an additional 16 calls for service that came into the center not related to school event. The large volume of calls and radio traffic were overwhelming, but they did an exceptional job managing the communications center. Our Victim Services Team, my Administrative Staff, Support Services and our Office of Emergency Management are commended for doing the best they could.

I am very proud of the teachers and students in the work they had to do to keep each other safe.

I am extremely proud of the men and women who worked this difficult event and taking care of our number one priority and that is the safety and security of our students and staff.

Thank you,

Sheriff Kevin Armstrong