Father Of Student Who Died In Colorado School Talks About Hero Son

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The father of Kendrick Castillo, the Hispanic student who lost his life trying to stop the shooting inside the STEM Highlands Ranch school in Denver, revealed that he had given him a serious warning before his son died.

This Wednesday, in an interview with NBC News, John Castillo, the father of the 18-year-old deceased, said that he had a conversation with his son on the subject of school shootings, which are increasingly frequent throughout the United States..

"[I said to him:] You are not going to want to be the hero," said the sad parent of the young victim, explaining that his son insisted on wanting to arrest a gunman if the opportunity arose. Castillo assured that after the warning, his son replied: “You raised me this way. You taught me to be a good person. That's what I'll do".

Tragically, that dreaded occasion occurred this Tuesday around 2:00 pm local time, when two young boys entered the STEM school armed with pistols to attack the students.

Castillo, who was in one of the classrooms where the attack occurred, pounced on Devon Erickson, one of the two suspects in the incident, to try to stop him and was shot in the chest that blinded his life.

Brendan Bialy, Castillo's friend and companion, also pounced on the gunman, which according to his companions allowed others to escape and save themselves. Now they are both considered as two heroes.

"He pounced on the trigger and immediately got on top of him completely ignoring his personal safety," the student told NBC Nightly. "He was immediately there to respond [to the crisis]: he was there on the gunman and ready to end the threat."

In the end, the shooting left 7 students injured, two of them seriously. The only fatal victim was Castillo.

The student's parents explained to the ABC network in Denver that when the shooting happened they desperately searched for their son. "We were looking for him frantically," said his dad. "Trying to communicate with him, text him and call him, but he didn't answer."

After what happened, the young man's face has grabbed headlines for his brave actions that cost him his life just three days after graduating from school. Castillo was passionate about technology, engineering and was considered by many to be a generous, kind and brilliant young man. His higher studies would begin in a couple of months at a community college in Littleton, Colorado.

"I would like everyone to know that this was not just any boy," her father tearfully told the aforementioned network. "He was extraordinary. We raised him to be good. I know this because thanks to what he did others are alive today. And I thank God. He is a hero. It will always be".