School Shooter Bruco Eastwood Denied Right To Unsupervised Leave

GOLDEN, CO -- A district court judge ruled that Deer Creek Middle School shooter Bruco Eastwood cannot leave his Pueblo mental facility for unsupervised work shifts or to stay overnight with relatives. Eastwood has been held at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo since 2011, when a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity for shooting and wounding two students at the middle school in 2010.

In 2015, Eastwood was allowed to leave the facility under supervision. He and his mental health doctors applied to the court in Dec. 2017 for permission for him to leave the facility to work at a part-time job and visit overnight three or four times a year with his mother.

But parents of one of his victims and First Judicial District Attorney Peter Weir opposed the change. Weir and the parents of Matthew Thieu said that Eastwood had not proved that he "understood right from wrong."

Weir said it was unclear that Eastwood was not a threat to himself or others, based on the dangerous events that happened seven years earlier.

On Feb. 23, 2010, Eastwood brought his father's hunting rifle to Deer Creek -- a school where he was "bullied by rich kids" when he had attended for a short time in 1991 during his parents' divorce -- according to media reports at the time.

After being told by a custodian to get a visitors badge, which he did, Eastwood waited in a parking lot across from the school until classes were dismissed. He approached some girls and asked if they went to school there. After one said yes, he pulled out the rifle and fired into the group, striking student Reagan Weber in the arm. He then made another shot, striking student Matthew Thieu in the chest, where the bullet punctured his lungs and broke several ribs. Before Eastwood could shoot again, he was tacked by 7th grade math teacher, David Benke, who held him down until police came.

A jury found Eastwood guilty of some charges, but not guilty of others by reason of insanity, and in 2011, he was sentenced to treatment in Pueblo.

The court's ruling Wednesday, written by District Court Judge Laura Tighe, said there was evidence that even though Eastwood had been treated with therapy and medication for schizophrenia, he continued to experience hallucinations. Tighe agreed with Weir's objections that the application "inadequately addresses public safety."

The court also ruled that Eastwood had a troubled relationship with his mother, who was not identified. The court ruling said he reported she used to kick him and came after him with scissors when he was 24. The court also said Eastwood's mother did not treat his schizophrenic symptoms in 2002 and gave him a book about the 1999 Columbine High School shooters, which "the state hospital staff found very troubling and harmful to his treatment."

Eastwood also seemed unclear about the timeline of his crime, Tighe's ruling said. The ruling said Eastwood still displayed signs of anger and didn't acknowledge "the relationship of anger to his criminal offense." the ruling quoted Eastwood as saying he could become violent "if someone chases me down and corners me... I will use as much self-defense as possible."

The ruling said that the court believed "public safety concerns remain," and that's why the request was denied.

Image via Jefferson County Sheriff