Aiden Beatty got a text Tuesday afternoon revealing that his friend and band mate, Devon Erickson, was one of the two STEM School Highlands Ranch students detained in connection with a shooting where one student was killed and eight injured.
Beatty leaned back in his car seat and broke down crying. Erickson had been the lead vocalist for several rock bands that he and Beatty had formed, including one they founded during the summer of 2018 called Foster Home. It never went anywhere.
“It still doesn’t seem real to me. It completely came out of nowhere,” he said Wednesday of Erickson’s arrest. “I was really close with him. We were best friends. It completely came out of nowhere.”
Erickson and a female juvenile accomplice have been arrested in connection to the mass school shooting. Erickson faces 28 charges, including murder and 25 counts of first-degree attempted murder after deliberation. His alleged accomplice has not been identified because she is a juvenile. Both will appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Douglas County for an advisement of their charges.
Erickson recently had texted Beatty that he got a job as a vocal instructor. Erickson had acted in school musicals and had been taking music lessons at least since the sixth grade, Beatty said.
“He did musical theater. He was always joking around. He was always the main person in the room when he was with friends. I don’t know how someone I thought I knew so well could do something like that,” Beatty said.
Erickson definitely had conflicts with other kids in school, partly because he was always a little small for his age, Beatty said.
“He would say so-and-so doesn’t like me,” he said. But there wasn’t anything that sounded too serious.
Erickson’s online existence did not offer clues to pending violence.
His Facebook page consists of ordinary selfies, a few pictures with friends, photos from theater productions he took part in and a few posts about the Denver Broncos. He had a YouTube channel filled with videos of him singing rock covers and playing guitar at various talent shows.
The only hints of his political views involved a selfie with a rainbow flag, a meme praising former President Barack Obama and a comedy clip mocking then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s support for President Donald Trump.
The only thing close to a hint that he might use violence is his Snapchat name, devonkillz.
Erickson texted Beatty a few weeks ago and said he broke up with his girlfriend because she insisted he distance himself from other friends, Beatty said.
For Beatty, his best friend is gone forever.
“In my mind he’s pretty much dead. He’s effectively killed himself, too, in a terrible and unimaginable way,” Beatty said.
Updated 3 p.m., May 8, 2019: A student’s comments that were posted to a public Facebook page have been removed from the story.
