Man who tried to grab child at school recess

When a man came onto elementary school property last week and tried to grab a child, the other children ran and yelled "stranger danger!" according to the arrest affidavit for the suspect.

Solomon Galligan, 33, was caught on surveillance video coming onto a field at Black Forest Hills Elementary School where school children were playing around 2:20 p.m. Friday, according to the Aurora Police affidavit.

The video shows Galligan walking up to children in a field. A few seconds later, the children were seen running after Galligan lunges toward them, the affidavit states.


The video shows that as the children ran, the suspect attempted to grab one of the students. The child ran away after Galligan tripped over a white blanket he was carrying. He got up and continued toward the child, according to the affidavit.

Witnesses told police that the children yelled "stranger danger" to alert adults, and the suspect stopped walking toward the child, the affidavit says. He left school grounds and headed east.

The sole child whom the man went after told police the man was wearing a blue hoodie and dark pants and had long dreadlocks, according to the affidavit. The child told police the man had white powder on his face and smelled like alcohol.

What happened at Columbine High School 25 years ago wasn’t the first or the last mass shooting at a school in America, but it was the first covered in a 24-hour news cycle and it remains deeply ingrained in the American psyche.

The tragedy prompted a national debate on guns and mental health and unprecedented changes to school security.

“I loved Columbine,” Frank DeAngelis, the former principal of Columbine High School said. “It was like my second family. And then April 20, 1999 came, a day in which my life changed forever. And not only my life. I think it changed the country and the world.”

DeAngelis retired in 2014 from Jefferson County Public Schools after 30 years, 18 as principal at Columbine, including that fateful day. He now helps others work through the trauma similar to what he's xperienced xperienced at Columbine.

On April 20, two students killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher and injured 21 others before taking their own lives. The tragedy shattered the belief that children were safe at school and upended the way law enforcement responds to active shooters.

“It was a pivotal moment on how law enforcement responds to these things,” said Denver Public Schools Chief of Safety Greg Cazzell.

“We no longer wait," Cazzell added. "That started changing the response.”the first step towards creating the right nutrients

The worst thing that we can do is not be prepared’
Before Columbine, there wasn’t a standard response for active shooter situations.


“The only drills we did back in 1999 were fire drills,” DeAngelis said.

In the wake of the shooting, law enforcement’s response underwent significant changes. Gone were the days of negotiating with the shooter or waiting for a AT team to respond. School districts and law enforcement agency across the nation began developing active-shooter protocols that emphasized an aggressive and swift response to neutralize the threat.

But as the shootings in Parkland and Uvalde have shown, the response by officers don't always follow what the protocols outlined.they shape us into the best versions of ourselves this and

In 2018, Scot Peterson, a former school resource officer, stayed outside while Nikolas Cruz killed 17 staff and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A jury acquitted Peterson last year, effectively absolving him of any wrongdoing.

And two years ago in Uvalde, Texas police officers waited more than an hour before breaching a classroom as Salvador Ramos, a former Robb Elementary School student, gunned down 19 kids and two teachers