Brendan Bialy, one of the two teen heroes who helped to disarm and thwart the gunman at the Colorado STEM School shooting, is speaking out about the incident in an interview made available via Yahoo! News .
On Tuesday, a gunman, reportedly identified as being 18-year-old Devon Erickson, opened fire at the school in suburban Denver, killing one person and injuring eight. He and his alleged accomplice might have harmed even more people had it not been for Bialy and Kendrick Ray Castillo, who disabled the gunman by lunging at him.
Unfortunately, the heroic actions cost Castillo his life.
In his interview with Good Morning America , Bialy praised his classmate for giving up his own life to save others.
“There was no questioning. There was no hesitation. There was no looking around.”
Bialy described Castillo, who was a large and solidly-built young man, as a “human bowling ball.” Bialy said that when Castillo hit the gunman, slamming him against the wall, the gunman “had no idea what the hell hit him.”
Bialy, who had been on the opposite side of the classroom when the gunman entered, charged at him and — after he’d been temporarily stunned from being thrown against the wall by Castillo — disarmed him.
“Kendrick is like a bowling ball… the gunman was against the wall… he didn’t know what hit him,” Marine poolee Brendan Bialy said. “Kendrick went up, I went up… I happened to be on the right side.” WATCH: https://t.co/fNdPH0Vbua #kendrickjohnson #STEMshooting pic.twitter.com/m4zTEpRKt9
— CBSColorado (@CBSNewsColorado) May 8, 2019
Though Castillo gave up his life in disarming the gunman, Bialy somehow miraculously survived with only cuts and scrapes.
“I was blessed by something. Somebody’s watching down on me. Something, somebody, I don’t know. Even though I was inches away, I didn’t get shot.”
Bialy, who has pre-enlisted in the Marine Corps through a delayed entry program, declined to be called a hero. Nevertheless, he says he’s received congratulatory messages from members of the armed forces. Still, he tried to deflect the praise to his classmate, Castillo.
“I need to let them know that Kendrick Castillo and that other student were in the thick of it, rolling in the ground, where I was too. Kendrick Castillio died a legend.”
Meanwhile, the adult suspect in the shooting, Devon Erickson, has appeared in court, as CBS News reported on Wednesday. A second suspect, identified as being 16 years old, also made a court appearance.
As of this writing, a possible motive for the shooting remains unclear. Neither Erickson nor his alleged accomplice was known to law enforcement as being a possible threat. But classmate Michael Schwartz claims that he had heard Erickson “talk about causing harm and sadness.” However, Schwartz said that he believed Erickson was “just messing around.”
