DENVER – A teenager accused of a shooting at a Denver-area high school, which left two students critically injured, reportedly had an interest in past mass shootings, such as Columbine, and shared neo-Nazi sentiments online, according to specialists.
Beginning in December, 16-year-old Desmond Holly was active on an online platform where users view videos featuring killings and violence, alongside material promoting white supremacist and antisemitic ideologies, as reported by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
Holly shot himself after the incident at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County on Wednesday and later succumbed to his injuries. Authorities are still investigating how he chose his targets. Jefferson County was also the location of the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999, which resulted in 14 deaths.
The Anti-Defamation League noted that Holly’s TikTok profiles displayed symbols linked to white supremacy, with his latest account name referencing a known white supremacist slogan. As of Friday, this account was no longer accessible, and TikTok confirmed that Holly’s related accounts were banned.
Attempts to reach Holly’s family were unsuccessful. The Associated Press tried contacting a number linked to the residence searched by police after the incident.
Mark Techmeyer, a representative of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, chose not to address the ADL’s report or provide details about the ongoing investigation. Earlier statements from the office indicated Holly had been influenced by an “extremist network,” but no further specifics were released.
Two recent suspects in school shootings were active on the so-called “gore forum” that Holly used — Watch People Die, according to the ADL. Holly appears to have opened his account in the month in between shootings in Madison, Wisconsin and Nashville, Tennessee, the ADL said.
A few days before Wednesday’s shooting, Holly posted a TikTok video posing in a similar way to how the Wisconsin shooter posed before killing two people during in December. He included a photo of the Wisconsin shooter in a post in which Holly wore black T-shirt with “WRATH” written on the front.
He also posted videos showing how he had made the shirt that was like one worn by a gunman in the Columbine shooting, the ADL said.
“There is a through-line between those attacks,” said Oren Segal, the ADL’s senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence. ”They’re telling us there is a through line because they are referencing each other.”
Emails sent to Watch People Die seeking comment weren’t immediately returned.
Holly was also active on TikTok’s “True Crime Community,” where it says users have a fascination with mass murderers and serial killers, the ADL said.
Some TikTok posts shared by the ADL show one user encouraging Holly to be a “hero,” a term it says white supremacists use to refer to successfully ideologically motivated attackers.
The person also told Holly to get a patch with a Nazi-era symbol that was worn by the men who carried out the 2019 attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the 2022 attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
Holly posted a photo of two patches that he had but said the Velcro on the back had fallen off.
“I’m gonna use stronger glue when I fix it,” he said.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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