Evergreen High School Shooting

Creator: Brian J. Matis 

Copyright: Some Rights Reserved - Brian J. Matis - 2009

On Wednesday, September 10th, 2025 at Evergreen High School in Colorado, a student brought a gun to school, shooting school property and leaving two students in critical condition before committing suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot.

Jacki Kelley, an officer at the Jefferson County Sheriff's office, said to CNN officials that Holly had brought his firearm and a large amount of ammunition on the bus with him that day. At 12:24, when calls from the school arose at the Sheriff’s office, Holly roamed the school grounds with his firearm, shooting out lockers and windows, looking for classmates, reported by CPR News. Kelley described the gunshots as, “fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload.”

The police arrived at Evergreen High School two minutes after the calls were received and found Holly after five minutes. One hundred officers came in total to the scene. Of the 900 students enrolled in the school, the majority of them were in lockdown within the school, though some fled to the nearby elementary school.

After the shooting was mediated by officials, the school informed the parents to go to Bergen Meadow Elementary School to see their children, where hundreds of parents lined up.

Holly ultimately shot and severely injured two students (it was unclear whether or not the victims were targeted) before shooting himself. All three received treatment at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado.

Later that night in the hospital, Holly died from his self-inflicted wound. 

According to NBC News, two hours prior to the shooting, Desmond Holly, the 16 year old shooter, had posted a picture to X of a revolver and ammunition. Additionally, days prior Holly had posted multiple pictures on Tik Tok of himself dressed in a skull mask and pictures of him in a bulletproof, ballistic vest along with other concerning Tik Toks.

One Tik Tok he posted was with him wearing a shirt with “WRATH” written across it in bright red. This shirt could be connected to the Columbine High School massacre and attempted bombing of 1999. According to Newsweek, one of the two shooters and students of Columbine High School, Dylan Klebold, wore the same shirt with the words “WRATH” on it the day of the massacre. It could be guessed that Holly “took inspiration” from Klebold and the horrible shooting.

This was not the only example of Holly’s glorification and desire to imitate previous school shooters. Another Tik Tok he posted (that since has been deleted) had background music of the video that was a portion of a Serbian folk song, the same song that the shooter of the 2019 Christchurch mosque played whilst livestreaming the massacre.

Holly also has an account (that he made during December 2024) on a website entitled “Watch People Die.” This site is primarily a source of violence, gore, and extremist views. These views found on the website, including white supremist and neo-Nazi (the modern version of Nazi ideals), were reflected on his other social media accounts, like Tik Tok. It is speculated that the gore and violence on the website also was a source of influence of the school shooter.