• On September 10, 2025, at approximately 12:30 p.m. local time, an individual carried out a mass shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, critically wounding two students.
  • The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• Media reporting has identified the shooter as Desmond Holly, a 16-year-old white male individual.
• Authorities stated that Holly was “radicalized by ‘some extremist network.’”
  • ICDE has identified that network as being linked to nihilistic violent extremism (NVE), which the Department of Justice describes as a network of individuals with shared “goals of destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, which often include minors.”
• ICDE’s and Darksight Analytics’ analysis of the attacker’s digital footprint and targeted violence manifesto highlighted the following:
  • As with other recent school shooters, there is no clear ideological motivation that appears to have motivated Holly to carry out the attack. Fixation on mass shooter culture, specifically the Columbine glorification sect of the True Crime Community, is the key theme.
    • Unlike prior school shootings, which frequently leverage rifles and shotguns in the cultural script of Columbine, Holly used a revolver.
  • Across Holly’s content, strong elements of militant accelerationism and references to NVE are present.
  • Review of a TikTok account associated with Holly demonstrates connections to the NVE network known by the numerical designation 141.
  • Little is known about 141, though it represents one of the many tactical variations within NVE networks that advocates for “in real life” or IRL violence, such as beatings, stabbings, or mass attacks like school shootings.
• Holly represents a growing trend within targeted violence wherein individuals attack what appears to be a symbolic target with little to no specific ideological motivation for the attack nor the target selection. Attackers are still, overall, more likely to be driven by personal grievance with a specific target.

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