Deer Creek Middle School math teacher David Benke was doing parking lot duty as school was letting out when he heard what he thought were firecrackers.
It was the sound of gunfire.
Benke, a 57-year-old teacher who has been at the school for a decade and whom students call "Dr. Benke," walked toward the sound and saw a man stooped over a rifle filling the chamber with another round.
"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to grab him before he got a second shot off," Benke said from his home in Littleton. "I grabbed him, and I think he dropped the gun. Basically we danced around."
Deer Creek Middle School is in Littleton is only a few miles from the campus of Columbine High School, site of the nation's most infamous school shooting incident.
Two students were wounded and hospitalized. Jefferson County authorities identified the alleged gunman as Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, 32. He was held on two counts of attempted murder, said Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
