Two Denver teenagers were arrested Tuesday after allegedly breaking into Rachel B. Noel Middle School with BB guns and damaging several rooms.
Denver SWAT teams surrounded the KIPP Montbello College Prep Middle School building on the Noel campus late Monday after janitors informed them they
saw two males breaking into the building carrying weapons, according to KCNC-TV.
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The suspects, both 15, surrendered before 3 a.m. Authorities found backpacks and BB guns. Denver Police Chief Robert White said that a surveillance camera showed the juveniles with what appeared to be long rifles and a sack, but they were later determined to be BB guns.
White told the Denver Post that after a "cat-and-mouse game for about two or three additional hours, we did apprehend the two individuals."
Denver Public Schools spokesman Michael Vaughn said that the campus opened as scheduled on Tuesday.
Law enforcement said that they believed both teenagers attempted to break into Greenwood Elementary School an hour before they broke into the middle school.
White said that beyond ransacked rooms, there was no reason to delay the school's opening Tuesday.
White told KCNC-TV that there were no students or employees inside the building at the time the juveniles broke in.
"It should be a pretty much normal day for the students," White said.
One parent, Sandra Bivins, dropped her child off Tuesday morning and said she felt her child was safe, even though the break-in was scary.
"It’s a little freaky that kids are out here with guns," Bivin said. "It sucks, but it happens everywhere, so I can’t really freak out about this."
Denver is projected to become the largest school district in Colorado in terms of enrollment by 2014, according to the school district's website.
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