A teacher and an aide standing in a crowded playground were shot by a passer-by with a pellet or BB gun during afternoon recess Tuesday at a north Denver elementary school.
No students were injured, but the small projectiles were fired into a crowd of about 200 children just after 1 p.m. at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval, a dual-language Montessori school at Wyandot Street and 36th Avenue, school officials said.
One teacher was hit in the right calf and the teacher’s assistant was shot in the neck, police said.
School officials did not identify the injured employees, but said their wounds were not life-threatening.
Students and parents identified the two as art teacher Ashley Nemeth and aide Natina Berrios, a reading and writing assistant.
“I saw that when Natina came inside she was holding her neck and there was blood,” third-grader Gianna Mueller said. “It was really scary. There was three people crying.”
Police had made no arrests as of Tuesday evening, but they did speak to witnesses, Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. School officials do not believe another student fired the shots.
The students, who are in their last week of school before summer break, were quickly ushered indoors and the school was locked down for three hours until parents arrived to pick up their children.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Wartgow came to the school and visited the aide and the teacher in the hospital.
“They were in good spirits,” Wartgow said. “We’re sending out a letter home to parents to inform them that we’ll be keeping the kids indoors for recess the rest of the week.”
Gianna Mueller’s father, John Mueller, was shocked about what happened.
“This is not even believable that someone would even think of doing something like this at an elementary school,” he said.
The shots came from outside a 6-foot-high, barred fence between the playground and Zuni Street, Jackson said. The shooter could have been standing on the street or driving by, Jackson said.
Investigators had not determined what kind of gun was used.
“We know it was not a traditional gun, but we’re not sure if it was a pellet or a BB gun,” Jackson said.
Even so, BB and pellet guns can injure someone, even if fired from far away, Jackson said.
Third-grader Marco Helson, who was interviewed by police, said that before the shots, a man with tattoos on his arms, wearing a white muscle shirt and black pants, walked past the school with a pit bull.
Helson said he told police that the man had what appeared to be a pistol tucked in his waistband.
“We didn’t really know him,” Helson said. “But he was scary looking.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry contributed to this report.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1190 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
