WATCH: Reporter Hugs Son While Covering Denver School Shooting

A Fox News reporter stopped her live coverage of the Denver high school shooting to embrace her son, who she spotted walking away from the scene of the horrific incident. Police said Austin Lyle, a 17-year-old student, shot two administrators at East High School Wednesday morning (March 22) before fleeing the scene.

Alicia Acuna, who works for FOX 31 in Denver, was live from the school when she took a moment to hug her child and check if he was okay.

"I'm so sorry," Acuna said following the brief pause. “There’s no way you would have let your kid walk by." Sandra Smith, a co-anchor, asked Acuna if she needed to step aside as the relieved mother kept looking off-camera, presumably at her son.

The school went into lockdown as the two victims were rushed to the hospital. Officials also issued a shelter-in-place order for Bailey, Colorado, which is 35 miles from East High School, as they looked for the suspect.

Acuna later told reporters she was working on a different story at her desk when she got texts from her son about police and ambulances arriving at the school. The mother of three was also informed that her niece was hiding in a closet when the shooting happened. The shooting happened in an office setting, and there were no students around, police said.

Lyle was found dead near a suspect vehicle in Park County, which is southwest of Denver, according to the coroner's office Thursday morning (March 23). Authorities learned the student was on a safety plan, where he was patted down every day.

The situation left parents confused about why they weren't informed about their children attending classes with someone under a safety plan, including Acuna herself. Officials didn't tell parents due to student privacy.

“As a parent, my question is, what about the safety and the concerns that we have for all of our students going in?” Acuna said, per FOX 8. “So, there’s a tremendous amount of frustration right now with regard to this student safety plan that we didn’t know about.”


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