[ad_1]
LITTLETON, Colorado (AP) – Denver area public schools will be closed Wednesday as authorities look for a young woman from Florida who flew to the city and bought a firearm after S & # 39 to be "infatuated" with mass shooting at Columbine High School.
The FBI said Sol Pais, 18, is "considered extremely dangerous" and "threatened to commit an act of violence in the Denver metropolitan area" just days before the twentieth anniversary of the attack that killed 13 people.
Patricia Billinger, spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, urged all schools in the Denver area to strengthen security, saying the threat was considered "credible and general." Columbine and more than 20 other schools outside Denver are locked for nearly three hours on Tuesday afternoon before the announcement of the Wednesday shutdown.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the FBI announced that Mr. Pais had traveled to Colorado from Miami on Monday night to purchase a shotgun and ammunition.
The Denver Public Schools have stated that all facilities and programs will be closed Wednesday and that there will be no afternoon activities or sports competitions. The district said the decision to close campuses was in collaboration with other school districts in the Greater Denver area because of the constant concern for safety.
On Tuesday, some schools released their students after the call for extra security and cancellation of activities in the evening or their move to the interior.
"We have always sensitized our loved ones to such anniversaries," Billinger said.
Authorities reported that Pais had been last seen near Columbine – in the hills of Jefferson County near Denver – wearing a black t-shirt, camouflage pants and black boots . They called on all those who saw her to call an FBI hotline at 303-630-6227, and said she was too dangerous to be approached by civilians. The alert also said that the police who would contact her should detain her and assess her mental health.
"It has become a massive human hunt … and every law enforcement agency participates in and contributes to this effort," said Dean Phillips, FBI Special Agent. in Denver late at night.
The Rocky Mountain Safe Streets working group of the FBI issued a notice on Tuesday describing Pais as "loving shooting in the Columbine School".
Sheriff's spokesman Mike Taplin said his threats were general and did not concern any school.
The Denver Post reported that a call to the phone number reported for Pais' parents in Surfside, Fla., Had been interrupted by a man who had introduced himself as an FBI agent and had stated that He questioned them.
Surfside police officer Marian Cruz confirmed that her parents had last seen her on Sunday and that she had disappeared on Monday. The Miami Herald and WTVJ report that neighbors say that the teenager is a senior from Miami Beach High School.
Associated Press left messages on two numbers listed for Pais parents in Florida, while another number was disconnected.
Two armed teenagers attacked Columbine on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and one teacher.
___
Thomas Peipert, a writer at the Associated Press in Denver, contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link