Evergreen school shooter grappled with victim before final shots

The 16-year-old Evergreen High School shooter physically grappled with one of his victims before shooting the teenager at an intersection behind the school, then shot himself as law enforcement closed in, a man who witnessed the encounter told The Denver Post on Tuesday.

Delmer Martinez, who was in Evergreen for a roofing job, was on his lunch break Wednesday and passing by the high school’s property when he saw two boys who appeared to be fighting near Buffalo Park Road and South Olive Road, he said. He slowed down, then stopped and watched.

“I saw the guy, some teen, come out of a ditch, one where water comes out, and he pulled another boy, like by the chest, had him by the chest and threw him against the street and fired a shot,” Martinez said, speaking in Spanish.

“And when he shot the boy, he threw him forward and then he went crazy and started aiming at the other cars,” Martinez said. “In fact, my truck was the first one there, and then I got scared.”

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A 32-second video that Martinez recorded at 12:30 p.m. shows a wounded Matthew Silverstone, 18, lying on his back at the intersection. Law enforcement officers with their guns drawn walk up a driveway at the intersection and shout several times for someone who is not visible in the video to drop the gun.

“From where I was, the shooter never answered anything, never said anything,” Martinez said. “Only the police officer told him to drop his gun, to stop, and no, the shooter wasn’t listening. He didn’t hear anything.”

A single gunshot can then be heard on the video.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Karlyn Tilley confirmed Tuesday that the 16-year-old suspect, Desmond Holly, shot himself near that intersection, and that Silverstone was also shot there, north of the school building, behind the football and soccer fields.

Desmond later died from the self-inflicted gunshot wound; the two wounded students remained hospitalized Tuesday. One victim has not been publicly identified.

In Martinez’s videos, law enforcement officers can be seen performing CPR on Silverstone.

Martinez said the shooter was wearing a small brown vest, “like the ones they use for the cold, but like what hunters use when they go hunting.”

He said he didn’t realize until much later that evening that he’d witnessed the end of the school shooting, because his cell service was poor in the foothills.

“I had never seen anything like that before,” he said.

Desmond fired about 20 rounds during the nine-minute attack — from the time he started firing until he shot himself, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday. The first 911 call came in at 12:24 p.m., and officers arrived on scene within 2½ minutes, according to the sheriff’s office.

Desmond wounded the other student inside the school, where he shot a revolver in several locations inside the building, according to the sheriff’s office.

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Officials said Desmond acted alone and was “radicalized” before the attack. His social media profiles suggest he was part of a new wave of online extremism that encourages the use of violence to destroy society. The teenager’s accounts were littered with references to white supremacy, antisemitism and violence, with a particular focus on past mass shootings, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.