The Denver Gazette reports that 16-year-old Desmond Holly entered Evergreen High School with a revolver on Wednesday, firing repeatedly and reloading “on and on and on,” according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Holly critically injured two students before turning the gun on himself. Authorities identified one of the victims as 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone, who remains hospitalized in critical condition.
The attack shook the foothills community west of Denver, leading to the closure of ten schools across Jefferson County as families reeled from another act of school violence. Officials emphasized the tragedy could have been even worse given the volume of shots fired.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Shooter identified. The suspect was 16-year-old Desmond Holly, who died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
- Multiple victims. Two students were critically injured, including 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone, who remains hospitalized.
- Gunfire chaos. Holly reloaded and kept firing inside the school; deputies say it’s a miracle more students weren’t harmed.
- School closures. Ten Jefferson County schools shut down Thursday, from Evergreen High to elementary campuses across the area.
- Community shaken. Parents and students were left traumatized, with the sheriff calling the event a devastating mission of destruction.
My Bottom Line
I continue to not know what to say. I really don’t. Because how do you string words together when evil walks into a school, reloads a revolver over and over, and tries to destroy as many lives as possible? The news reports the facts, but we are left to cope with the wreckage.
We cannot keep looking at these horrors through the cheap glasses of politics and policy. This is not about “gun laws” or “school security budgets.” This is about good and evil. About principalities, not politicians. And if you can’t see that, you’re blind to the bigger fight we’re in.
No government program, no bill signed in a marble rotunda, is going to heal this nation now. Washington can’t regulate the darkness out of a 16-year-old’s soul. Jefferson County can’t pass a resolution that binds up broken hearts. Healing comes from something higher – something eternal.
We are in Romans 1 times. Truth is traded for lies. Good is mocked as evil. Evil parades as good. And the devil is prowling. That’s the battlefield Evergreen just walked onto.
So yes, my thoughts and my prayers are with those students and their families. Laugh if you want. But I know prayer works. I know God hears. And right now, the only way to push back against this kind of evil is on our knees – rebuking, resisting, and surrounding our communities with the power of God. Then we put on the full armor of God and face it head on.
Because until this nation chooses sides – until we choose the side, the side of good – we’ll just keep writing stories like this one.
