On April 7, 1982, 13-year-old Scott Darwin Michael, a student at Deer Creek Junior High in Littleton, Colorado, was shot and killed on school grounds during the lunch break. Scott was lying on a grassy knoll when a 14-year-old fellow student approached, leaned over him and fired a single shot into Scott’s chest; the bullet struck the lower part of his heart. Scott managed to stand and stagger toward a bike rack before collapsing and was pronounced dead at 12:10 PM after paramedics arrived.

Earlier that day the 14-year-old and two other boys had been in a nearby field; when they thought a sheriff’s patrol car had seen them they hid a rifle, but the 14-year-old kept a .38 revolver taken from his grandfather and later showed it to several students on campus. The shooter was identified quickly, taken into custody, tried as an adult, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea bargain and received a 12-year prison term that was automatically reduced to six years; he served five and a half years in a Closed Adolescent Treatment Center. At an August 1987 parole hearing he reportedly said he shot Scott because he just wanted to look bad.

Does anyone have memories of Deer Creek Junior High in 1982 or information about Scott that could help document his life and the impact of this crime?