Suspect in school shootings held on $1 million bail

JEFFERSON COUNTY – Two Deer Creek Middle students are recovering from gunshot wounds, a former student is jailed in the shootings and investigators are trying to figure out why the 32-year-old suspect returned to the school after 18 years and began firing at kids.

And a teacher who tackled the suspect and others who helped subdue him are being hailed as heroes.

Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood of Hudson made his first court appearance Wednesday morning via a video link even as an eighth grade boy remains hospitalized in critical condition at Children’s Hospital.

The suspect was ordered held on $1 million cash bond. He will return to court March 2 to hear the charges that will be filed against him.

Classes at Deer Creek and nearby Stony Creek Elementary School, where many of the middle school students were taken after the shooting, were canceled Wednesday, but counselors were available at Stony Creek to help students, their parents and school employees cope with the mental trauma of the incident, according to a Jeffco school district spokeswoman.

Matt Thieu, 14, and Reagan Weber, 13, were shot Tuesday afternoon when they left the school as classes were being dismissed. Reagan was treated at a Littleton hospital and released Tuesday night.

The suspect managed to get off only two shots, striking the girl in the arm and Thieu in the side, before an alert teacher tackled the suspect, witnesses said.

Teacher Dave Benke, with the help of other school employees and a contract crew working nearby, held Eastwood until Jeffco deputies arrived on the scene, said Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Jacki Kelley.

Kelley said neither of the two wounded students suffered life-threatening injuries.

The incident began to unfold shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday when the rifle-toting suspect approached a group of kids outside the school and asked if they were students there. When the kids said yes, he raised the rifle and shot the girl, striking her in the shoulder.

As the first shot rang out, bedlam broke out and students began running from the scene, according to Kelley. A second shot struck Matt, reportedly as he fled toward the shelter of a of a number of school buses lined up nearby.

Benke said Wednesday he regrets he couldn’t reach the gunman before the second shot was fired, but knew he had time to drop the gunman before he could chamber another round in the bolt-action rifle.

“It bothers me that he got the second shot off and that’s the one that got Matt,” Benke said during a press conference at Jeffco Schools’ headquarters.

A number of nearby faculty members took charge of the scurrying students, ordering some back inside the school, where they were locked down inside classrooms and offices. Other students were directed away from the school to waiting buses and still others were told to hit the ground, curl up and remain still and quiet to avoid attracting the gunman’s attention.

“The staff of Deer Creek Middle School had a nightmare experience and in that nightmare, they behaved with such skill and such courage and practiced everything they knew how to do,” said Dr. Cynthia Stevenson, Jeffco schools superintendent.

“Because of our staff at Deer Creek Middle School, we have children today who are with their parents.”

Stevenson called the actions of the faculty, bus drivers and maintenance employees a “vivid symbol of how good our staff is.”

Deer Creek MS is only three miles from Columbine High School, where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives 11 years ago and the school district’s post-Columbine training has been cited as a factor in the staff’s fast response.

Authorities credit Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player with ensuring Tuesday’s shootings did not result in a worse tragedy.

Benke, who was on parking-lot duty outside the school when the gunman fired his first shot, responded immediately, sending his hefty frame flying into the slightly built suspect. Eastwood stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 120 pounds, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Benke told reporters he was not a hero during an interview after investigators debriefed him Tuesday night.

But school officials and investigators praised Benke’s fast action and that of other school employees who helped subdue and hold the suspect until deputies arrived.

“I want to thank you for doing the right thing, you saved a lot of lives and I want to personally thank you,” said Sheriff Ted Mink, who approached Benke as the teacher was talking to reporters late Tuesday.

Eastwood, who has a record of violent crimes, is expected to be charged with two counts of attempted murder as well as other felony counts, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Eastwood was described as “cooperative” by investigators who interviewed him after the shooting.

The unemployed suspect lived on his father’s ranch near Hudson for the past five years, doing chores for room and board while trying to get his high school Graduate Equivalent Diploma.

Deputies searched that house Wednesday and removed what Kelley said is evidence in the case.

Eastwood’s father told a television reporter his son has a history of mental problems.

The rifle believed used in the attack at the school belongs to Eastwood’s father, according to a statement released by the Sheriff’s Department early Wednesday.

Investigators were working the crime scene and were interviewing school staff members at mid-day.

Eastwood’s mug shot has not been released.