6th Grader Who Survived Colorado School Shooting: 'I Was Going To Go Down Fighting'

Nate Holley, 12, told CNN that when two gunmen entered his school in Denver, Colorado, “it was incredibly scary" and many of his classmates broke into tears.

A 12-year-old boy told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that he held onto a metal baseball bat and hid in a closet during a school shooting.

“I was going to go down fighting if I was going to go down,” he said.

Nate Holley is a sixth grade student at STEM School Highlands Ranch, where two shooters opened fire and killed an 18-year-old student. Eight others were injured.

“It was incredibly scary during it and at least half the kids in my class broke into tears when it started happening,” Nate told CNN on Wednesday afternoon.

Nate said his teacher initially directed students to hide behind a desk and then, upon the shooter getting closer, to hide in a closet.

The gunmen who entered STEM School Highlands Ranch, which is seven miles away from Columbine High School, went into two classrooms in different locations “deep” inside the school, law enforcement said. They are believed to be students at the school.

Last month, on April 20, Columbine High School grieved the 20th anniversary of a tragic shooting that left 12 students and a teacher dead.

Nate’s father, Steve Holley, told Baldwin that this was the third time he’s had to pick up his child up from school after a lockdown or a threat of a school shooting.

Baldwin tweeted after the interview that Nate told her: “Someone who survives this is a warrior.”

In 2019, there have already been 15 school shootings in the United States.

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