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DENVER (KDVR) — A 12-year-old accused of stabbing a classmate at a Denver school last week has been charged with attempted murder and bias-motivated crime.
FOX31 is not naming the seventh grader but because of the charges is reporting the suspect is Hispanic and the victim is Black.
The victim’s father, Ted Temple, said his son told him the suspect had repeatedly called him the N-word at school, “frequently … to his face.”
Just a week before the attack, Temple said school leaders at Marie Greenwood Academy — a public school with grades ranging from early childhood to eighth — told him the suspect had been disciplined for calling a female student the N-word on numerous occasions.
“Where did he get this from at this age, this much hate?” Temple said.
Child suspect’s court hearing reveals new details
A spokesman for Denver Public Schools said student privacy laws prevent the district from confirming if the 12-year-old suspect had been disciplined previously or what discipline he might now face.
But Temple told FOX31 prosecutors revealed new details Thursday at the suspect’s first court hearing.
“He had a list of people and their race that he was going to kill,” Temple said. “He brought a BB gun and a knife to school. He brought a BB gun, the evidence found, because he couldn’t find a real gun. He couldn’t get his hands on a real gun.”
Temple said his son’s name was first on the hit list and that school Principal Blake Hammond, who is Black, told Temple his name was on the list too.
According to Temple, prosecutors revealed in court the 12-year-old suspect was fascinated with Nazi paraphernalia and had researched school shootings, hate crimes and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing online.
“He had a lot of, like, swastikas, a lot in his bedroom. And being that he was, you know, kind of disciplined in school the week before, I was wondering, you know, how much could he have in his bedroom without his parents actually knowing?” Temple said.
Suspect’s father apologizes
The judge for juvenile court closed off the courtroom to the media and the general public, but Temple told the Problem Solvers the father of the suspect personally apologized to him in court.
“I appreciated it. I did,” Temple said.
His son was released from the hospital hours after the attack and is expected to make a full recovery, but Temple said it was a close call. The first stab wound penetrated his son’s skull and caused “slight bleeding on the brain … my son could have died that day. And it was intended for him to die that day.”
Temple showed the Problem Solvers a photo of the suspect with his son from earlier this year when the two boys were on better terms.
He said his son said that “this summer, when they was still friendly, that he talked the other child out of committing suicide.”
The suspect made his first court appearance virtually on Thursday from the Gilliam Youth Services Center, where the judge ordered he remain in custody on seven counts:
- Attempted murder
- First-degree assault
- Weapon on school property
- Bias-motivated crime
- Interference with school
- Violent juvenile offender
- Aggravated juvenile offender
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