WEEK OF MARCH 7, 2024
VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 13
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Memorial in works for student who tried to stop STEM shooting
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BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
John Castillo doesn’t want to forget. Sometimes the pain he feels today is greater than the anguish he felt the day that a shooter at STEM School Highlands Ranch took his son’s life. Kendrick was “an innocent young man who had everything to live for,” John Castillo said. He wants people to remember his son and to never forget the tragedy that befell students nearly five years ago. And local leaders, too, want the community to know about 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, who died after he lunged at one of the shooters on May 7, 2019, helping save others’ lives around him. Now, Douglas County and Highlands Ranch officials say they will build a monument to the hero at Civic Green Park, less than a mile away from the school. And, officials plan to change the name of Lucent Boulevard to Kendrick Castillo Way. “There’s a bit of a double entendre there: Kendrick Castillo Way is a way of life,” said county Commissioner Abe Laydon, noting that Kendrick Castillo went toward the conflict, not away from it. The memorial in the park — not far from the soon-to-berenamed street — will sit near a veterans monument and a Douglas County Sheriff ’s Office building. Kendrick Castillo was a “big fan” of the military and law
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Kendrick Castillo’s parents, John and Maria, unveil a sign on Feb. 26 that marks the future spot of a memorial to honor their son in Civic Green Park. Kendrick Castillo is remembered as a hero for confronting a shooter at STEM School Highlands Ranch in May 2019.
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PHOTO BY ELLIS ARNOLD
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