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Deer Creek Shooting Suspect Says He Heard Voices

Father Says Suspect Schizophrenic

POSTED: 10:55 am MST March 12, 2010
UPDATED: 6:19 pm MST March 12, 2010

Newly released documents said the man accused of shooting and wounding two students at a Colorado middle school told deputies he was hearing voices after his arrest and was trying to fend off "transforming forces" from his body.

Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, 32, is charged with attempted murder and other counts in the Feb. 23 shooting at Deer Creek Middle School in Jefferson County outside Denver. The shooting happened a few miles from Columbine High School, where two teenagers in 1999 killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves.

Eastwood was tackled by a teacher and arrested. He had four live rounds of ammunition for a hunting rifle when deputies searched him, but he told authorities that he left his home with a box of ammunition and purchased another on his way to the school, according to an arrest affidavit released Friday.

A Jefferson County judge ruled earlier this week that the affidavit should be released after several members of the media petitioned to see it.

Eastwood was being held in lieu of $1 million cash bail and hasn't entered a plea. He is due in court for a preliminary hearing April 6.

The arrest affidavit describes Eastwood's bizarre behavior after the shooting, his history of hearing voices, and journals he kept, but it doesn't mention any motive for opening fire. It says Eastwood went inside the school sometime before 2:50 p.m., got a visitor pass and then returned to his car.

"It was there he made his final decision to shoot at students at the school," the affidavit says.

Eastwood told investigators he approached a group of students in front of the school, asked them if they liked going to Deer Creek and then raised his father's hunting rifle and fired at a girl, the affidavit says.

He said he didn't know if the girl was hit because she turned and ran. Eastwood said he then fired at a boy who had his back turned, the affidavit says.

The wounded students were eighth-graders Reagan Weber and Matt Thieu. Both are recovering.

After his arrest, Eastwood appeared to be picking things from his skin and pushing something away while deputies were interviewing him, the affidavit says.

"When asked about these motions, Bruco indicated he was trying to remove what he called transforming forces from his body," the affidavit said.

Eastwood's father, War Eagle Eastwood, has said he believes his son suffers from schizophrenia and that he was upset because he recently failed a GED test he took to try to enlist in the military.

Bruco Eastwood told investigators after his arrest that he was in a mental hospital in 2002 after he called Littleton police and reported hearing voices he believed were coming from a Nielsen television box.

He told authorities on the day of the shooting that he has heard voices ever since, despite having the box removed. He said he "may have journaled about his intentions and thoughts about what he was going to do" the day of the shooting, according to the affidavit.

The contents of those journals, which Bruco Eastwood said he kept in the kitchen and the basement of his father's home, have not been released.

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