An 18-year-old man was arrested last week on suspicion of pointing a gun at two people outside Arapahoe High School in Centennial on the first day of school, authorities announced Monday.
The incident occurred around noon on Thursday, when the alleged victims — one a student at the school — approached a couple of school resource officers to say that a man had just pulled a gun on them as they were walking near the school.
The suspect was identified by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Monday as Connor Beals. A spokeswoman with the agency said he was not a student at the school.
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Authorities described the people who said they were threatened as “visibly shaken and frightened,” and officers quickly located Beals in a vehicle across the street. They searched the vehicle and found a gun inside. Beals was arrested on suspicion of felony menacing and was booked into the Arapahoe County jail.
Littleton Public Schools, of which Arapahoe High School is a part, sent a letter to parents on Thursday explaining the situation and saying it unfolded so quickly that a “secure” alert — where outside doors are locked — couldn’t be triggered in time before the suspect was apprehended.
Arapahoe High School was the scene of a fatal school shooting in December 2013 and Thursday’s incident comes nearly three months after a gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 students and two teachers.
