A shooting in which a suspect died after a horrifying attack at Colorado School
A student suspected of firing at Evergreen High School in Colorado died from injuries sustained in self-harm after being seriously injured two classmates.
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The teenager, accused of shooting a student at a suburban Denver High School, appeared to be developing a “deep charm” of sharing neo-Nazi views online several months before the attack, research by the anti-defense league found.
Authorities said 16-year-old Desmond Holly died of self-harm on Sept. 10 after firing a handgun inside and outside Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. The shootings that seriously injured two students forced the school to undergo short lockdowns, prompting a massive police response.
Further investigations revealed that Holly was “radiated by a network of several extremists,” according to Jackie Kelly, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. However, additional details of the suspect and his suspicions of radicalisation were not immediately released.
In a report published on September 12, the Reflection League’s Extremism Center discovered that Holly had been active since December 2024 on the so-called online “Gore” forum where users share violent, graphic images and videos.
“Study by the ADL Center on Extremism shows that Holly spent a considerable amount of time in an online space characterized by extremist ideology and violent content, and ultimately adopted the views of extremists,” the report states.
The report states that Holly is one of “several large attackers” active on the forum, and includes two students who appear to have committed suicide after shooting at schools in Madison, Wisconsin and Nashville. In another report released last month, ADL detailed how the suspects in the shooting shared a similar path when they adopted the white supremacist views from the online militant community.
What happened in the Colorado High School shooting?
On Sept. 10, around 12:24pm, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said it received a report of a shooting at Evergreen High School, about 30 miles southwest of Denver. The suspect, armed with a revolver handgun, fired inside and outside the school while some students were having lunch.
According to the sheriff’s office, one of the victims was shot inside and the other was shot outside. Following the brief lockdown, the school, which serves around 900 students, was declared safe by law enforcement.
According to Kelly, the responding officer did not fire the round and later found the suspect within five minutes of arriving at the scene. The suspect died of self-harm, she said, adding that he “had quite a lot of ammunition with him.”
“He fired and reloaded, fired and reloaded, fired and reloaded,” Kelly said at a September 11 press conference. “This continued, and like he did, he tried to find a new target.”
Authorities have not announced possible motives in the shooting, but said the investigation is still ongoing. Kelly previously said investigators were searching for the suspect’s home, school lockers and phones.
After the shooting, the high school cancelled classes on September 11th and September 12th, and Kelly said the school would remain closed if the investigation continues. In an update on September 15th, the school said students would not return to class that week.
Evergreen High School is located about 20 miles from Columbine High School, the infamous mass shooting location in 1999 that killed 12 students and one teacher. The Columbine shooting is considered one of the most deadly school shootings in American history.
Colorado shooting suspects expressed neo-Nazi views on social media
According to ADL, Holly expressed Neo-Nazi’s views online and began collecting tactical gear in the months leading up to the shooting of Evergreen High School. The report added that Holly had created a post on social media showing his gear. It was decorated with a symbol of extremism and inspired by the equipment used by previous mass shooters.
Holly’s Tiktok account was “full of white supremacist symbolism,” ADL said, noting that the username for his latest account includes references to the popular white supremacist slogan. His profile picture also shows the image of the suspect in 2014 Isla Vista Killings, where the 22-year-old killed six people in a shooting rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus.
“Holly also expressed her praise for the school shooters and was active in Tiktok’s true crime community (TCC). Tiktok’s supporters have a disturbing charm to mass murderers and serial killers,” ADL said in the report. “Holly is on a long list of large attackers involved in TCC content online, including Antioch in 2025 and the rich life shooter in 2024.”
A few days before the September 10th shooting, ADL said he posted to Tiktok, which showed himself “in a similar way” as the way the shooting posed before the suspect in Madison, Wisconsin, was killed at Christian School of Abundant Life in December 2024.
Also, according to the ADL, Holly was wearing a black t-shirt with “Wrath,” recreated to match the shirt worn by one of the gunmen in the 1999 Columbine shooting.
Another Tiktok post shared by ADL showed that he liked comments from another user who asked him about Holly becoming a “hero” this June. The report is the term used by some white supremacists to refer to ideologically motivated attackers.
According to ADL, the same user told Holly to get a patch featuring the Nazierra symbol he wore in 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand and Mosque shooting, 2022 Buffalo and 2022 Buffalo in Buffalo in New York. Holly then responded with a photo of two patches made with the Nazierra symbol.
“I made some but the velcro fell off my back,” he said in a response, according to ADL. “I’m going to use stronger adhesive when I fix it.”
Experts say the online “gore” forum is a “gateway to extremism”
The ADL said Holly’s activities on the online “Gore” forum were “the third example of teenagers using the platform in less than a year, becoming radical, committing school shootings and murders.”
According to ADL, Holly commented on previous mass shooting posts, including the Parkland High School attack in 2018, the Buffalo shooting in 2022, and the Quebec City Mosque shooting in 2017. The report added that Holly may have attended the forum on December 26th, 2024.
The report said the forum “serves as a gateway to extremism” for at least three suspects in school shootings, including suspects of Holly and the Christian School shooting of abundance in Nashville and attacks at Antioch High School. The ADL added that it was posted on the social media platform Reddit before it was banned from the site in 2019.
“As ADL research has revealed, white supremacists, anti-Semitism, and other extremists are frequently posted on the site,” the report states. “Youth have easy access to the content and visual portrayal of extremists of graphic violence praised by users of the platform, allowing them to be decolorized into such content and increased the risk of ideologically motivated violence.”
Contributions: Julia Gomez, Eduardo Quebas, Michael Loria, USA TODAY
