Nuggets coach Michael Malone has a tangential connection to STEM School Highlands Ranch (Colo.), the site of a fatal shooting Tuesday. He told reporters that the school is two minutes from his house and that his wife and daughters "know people" at the school.
Against that background, Malone expressed frustration about school shootings in the United States.
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"Something must change," he said, per video posted by the Nuggets on Twitter.
"It's not just Highlands Ranch, it's not just Colorado, this is an epidemic and it continues to happen, and that's the frustrating thing," Malone added, according to a transcript posted by BSN Denver's Harrison Wind.
"How do you stop it? Again, gun control, laws, whatever it might be. I'm not a politician, I don't want to sit up here on a soapbox. I just want everyone back in Highlands Ranch to know we are with you. And that's really important for them to know."
Malone spoke before the Nuggets hosted the Trail Blazers in Game 5 of their second-round NBA playoff series at Pepsi Center. The Nuggets observed a moment of silence just before tipoff.
Police in Highlands Ranch said eight other people were injured in Tuesday's incident. Douglas County sheriff's officers arrested two students who are suspected of carrying out attacks in different parts of the school campus.
The shootings occurred one week after two people were shot to death and four others injured at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, and 20 years after 13 people were killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., which is about 7.5 miles northwest of Highlands Ranch.
