One male and one female were shot at about 3:30 p.m. outside Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Jefferson County Sheriff's office spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said. Both students were taken to a nearby hospital and were expected to survive.
Student Steven Seagraves said he was about 10 feet away when an adult approached students and asked them: "Do you guys go to this school?"
When the students said they did, he shot them, Seagraves said.
Bus driver Steve Potter said he was about to pull away from the school with a full bus when he heard a loud bang that sounded like an M-80 firecracker. Students screamed when they spotted the man with a rifle, Potter told KMGH-TV.
"He looked like he was just kind of looking around for someone to shoot," he said.
Seventh-grade math teacher David Benke, a former college basketball player, tackled the suspect. Potter said he and another bus driver jumped on the gunman and helped hold him until police arrived.
"He's the real hero," Potter said of Benke. "All the credit goes to him."
The suspect's name hasn't been released, but authorities say he's 32.
The school is about three miles southwest of Columbine High School, where two teens — Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris — killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 others before killing themselves in 1999.
The middle school was temporarily locked down with about 30 students in the building. They were eventually taken to a nearby elementary school, where they were to meet up with their parents.
Students' parents were alerted through text messages, phone calls and e-mails, Jefferson County Schools spokeswoman Melissa Reeves said.
Kelley said authorities don't yet have a motive for the shootings.
"Why this school, why this happened, why these students, we don't have any of those answers yet," she said.
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I was supposed to do five news stories during my break, and this is my second one as of today. It's all due tomorrow and I still need to edit it all.
/full of fail
