Investigation into STEM School shooting is intense and time-intensive

Posted: May 10, 2019 / 10:04 PM MDT

Updated: May 10, 2019 / 10:05 PM MDT

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HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — Three days after the shooting at the STEM School Highlands Ranch that killed one student and injured eight more, the school is still a crime scene as an intense investigation is underway.

Crime scene tape still circles the school and law enforcement officers are blocking the entrances 24 hours a day.

“This is not one of those situations where you can go in and get a do-over,” said James Allbee, a former law enforcement officer who now operates the Metro Intelligence Agency. “You got one chance to get this right and you have to get it the first time around.”

Allbee is not involved in the STEM shooting investigation, but spent more than a decade in law enforcement and can offer some insight into what investigators are doing right now.

“The way that I like to look at this is: you have a blank canvas,” Allbee told FOX31. “Each one of those investigators has to go in and help paint a picture of what each and every area…looks like.”

This includes the classroom and any other area where shots were fired, plus the suspects’ vehicles, homes and digital devices.

“We’re deep in all of the social media searches, computers, phones, all that stuff,” Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said earlier this week.

His investigators are also interviewing upwards of 600 people, mostly students, who may have witnessed the shooting and the aftermath. The interviews could prove to be one of more difficult aspects of the investigation.

“You have the shock factor. They’re just not going to remember things,” Allbee said. “They’re going to go into safe mode and block out everything that’s going on. Some of that may [come] back. Some of it may not.”