The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on April 23 released more than 600 pages of investigative documents on last year’s Evergreen High School shooting, after months of complaints about a lack of transparency.
The JCSO said it wished to disclose as much as possible partly as a response to lessons learned from the 1999 Columbine Shooting, when it was also accused of withholding information.
In the documents, investigators reveal what they learned about the shooter’s mental health, online activity, and actions immediately prior to and during the shootings. He apparently had shown interested in past school shootings, Nazi memorabilia, and other disturbing materials.
Unfortunately, the records do not reveal more about how the shooter accessed the gun he used, and possible violations of Colorado safe storage laws in the suspect’s home. The JCSP previously said that the family refused through their attorney to be interviewed about how the shooter obtained the gun, saying only that it was a family heirloom and always kept in a safe.
Evergreen PTSA President Cindy Mazeika told Colorado Public Radio “she believes releasing documents after closing the case in February without pursuing a further investigation into how the weapon was stored felt less like accountability and more like officials ‘washing their hands of the situation.’“