Police are eager to learn why Karl Pierson opened fire with a shotgun at his Colorado school Friday.
Police name Colorado school shooter
They have asked his parents and will search their home Saturday, but the person who could best answer the question lay lifeless Friday night on the floor of Arapahoe High School in the Denver suburb of Centennial.
The body of the 18-year-old student remained there as part of the crime scene he created when he wounded a student then shot himself, the sheriff said.
Janitor: I saw shooter take aim, fire
Authorities have plenty of evidence to tell them what Pierson did and how he did it, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said.
Plenty of witnesses saw and heard him looking for a faculty member and discharging his weapon.
The halls of the school must have been crowded at the time, he said. It's a wonder that Pierson's shots hit only one girl, age 15. She was in critical condition late Friday in a hospital, where she was operated on.
Her blood splattered on another girl, and police initially believed she had been shot, too. But she was and everyone else was unharmed -- at least physically. Some of them were treated for panic attacks.
"I'm very grateful for it," Robinson said.
He credited the quick response time for the fact that Pierson stopped firing on others and turned his weapon on himself. Only five minutes passed from the time deputies received the 911 call that they were standing over the teen's deceased body, he said.
Robinson said earlier that first reports indicated a time of 14 minutes or less.
Who was Pierson?
The big question still on Robinson's mind is: "Why?" He has dedicated a team of investigators to answering it.
"That is their key responsibility -- to find out about him, find out what his background was," he said. They worked through the night.
Robinson is confident they will find the right pieces to the puzzle, when they execute search warrants Saturday at Pierson's home and at his father's home.
Pierson was a "nice young man," neighbors told CNN affiliate KUSA. He was an achiever, an athlete, who ran cross country. He had worked on an Eagle Scout project, KUSA reported.
The broadcaster had previous contact with him. It got comments from him a few years ago for a feature news story, and he submitted questions to KUSA for a U.S. Senate debate.
High school senior Frank Woronoff told CNN he had known Pierson since they were freshmen together.
"He was the last person I would expect to shoot up a high school. He was honestly incredibly humble and down to earth. He was a little geeky but in a charming way," he said.
Pierson also routinely won contests on his speech and debate team, KUSA reported. He showed off his first place and second place trophies online.
That's where the trouble may have brewed. When Pierson entered the school, he was looking for his debate coach, KUSA reported, sourcing Sheriff Robinson.
Pierson apparently had a "confrontation or disagreement" with a faculty member Robinson said. The shooting was an apparent act of revenge.
He did not know if the wounded girl was a planned or a coincidental victim.
Sandy Hook, Columbine
It was on the eve of the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that Pierson walked into Arapahoe High School with its student body of 2,229 who occupy 70 classrooms. He was openly brandishing his weapon.
It was only 10 miles away from the sight of the Columbine High School shooting, in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher in April 1999 before killing themselves.
Pierson asked other students about the whereabouts of the man he was looking for, Robinsin said.
A school janitor spotted him in his tactical gear, he told CNN affiliate KMGH.
"It just looked weird," Fabian Llerenas said. "He went in and I heard two pops. That's when I knew. I said, 'They are shooting in the school.'"
Llerenas said he called 911, and he then escorted the targeted faculty member out of the school.
Pierson had fired at the man but missed, Llerenas told KUSA.
"He was so [shaken] up, he felt the wind hit, out of the shotgun just blew his hair out but it didn't hit him. It was that scary for him."
"In my opinion, that was the most important tactical decision that could have been made," Robinson said. The faculty member "left that school in an effort to try to encourage the shooter to also leave the school."
Pierson's body was found later in a classroom, Robinson told reporters. The student appears to have acted alone, he said.
In addition to the shotgun, authorities found two Molotov cocktails inside the school, Robinson said.
One of the Molotov cocktails was burning when officers ran into the school, he said. "The deputies encountered a large amount of smoke."
The other was "rendered safe," Robinson said.
Mayhem, lock down
While authorities hunted for the student gunman inside the school, students were locked in their classrooms.
Courtney Leytoldt told KMGH she saw a girl, covered in blood, running down the stairs yelling, "Help me, help me, there's a shooter."
Leytoldt said she was in yoga class and that her teacher told all the students to get into a closet to protect them.
Ninth-grader Whitney Riley was getting ready to grab her computer from her locker when the shooting began.
"We were having fun and laughing and then, all of a sudden, we heard a really loud bang," the 15-year-old told CNN.
"My teacher asked what it was and then we heard two more and we all just got up and screamed and ran into a sprinkler system room."
Inside the windowless room were five students and two teachers. "We were shaking, we were crying, we were freaking out," Riley said. "I had a girl biting my arm."
They soon heard people yelling, and walkie-talkies crackling, and then they heard police asking someone to drop the gun, put the gun down, and hold his arms up, she said.
She did not hear another gunshot, though the people doing the talking could have moved farther away, she said. Soon, they heard police ordering them out.
Dozens of students could be seen walking away from the school, with their hands in the air. Some stood in lines at what appeared the high school track field, where they appeared to be undergoing police pat-downs.
Students were then taken by bus to a nearby church where they were reunited with their families, Robinson said. They had to leave their cars in the school parking lot and their belongings in the classrooms overnight.
Gov. John Hickenlooper called the shooting an "all-too-familiar sequence, where you have gunshots and parents racing to the school and unspeakable horror in a place of learning."
The sheriff felt it not appropriate to bemoan the shooting as a repeat of the Columbine shooting, but he hinted that the response to school shootings has improved since.
He believes that reaction protocols and communication practices put in place are working.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/14/us/col...hool-shooting/
It's always "I can't picture him ever doing something like this! He was always so nice."
ANYBODY can do this no matter the background or if they seemed "nice" or if they don't seem like the type. The fact of the matter is nobody can see what's going on in other people's heads. And it's usually the really messed up individuals that put on the best act at being normal.
The gunman who entered a Denver area high school on Friday and shot and critically wounded a student intended to harm a large number of individuals, officials said Saturday.
Karl Pierson, 18, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot, entered the north side of the high school armed with a shotgun he bought legally, multiple rounds of ammunition strapped across his body, a machete and a backpack filled with three Molotov cocktails. In less than two minutes he fired five shots and ignited one of the Molotov cocktails before running to the back of the school library and killing himself.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Pierson would have shot many more people if a sheriff's deputy assigned to the school hadn't gotten to the area as quickly as he had.
"The shooter knew the deputy was in the area," Robinson said at a news briefing. "We believe that the response ... was absolutely critical to the fact that we did not have additional injury or deaths."
He added: "It is our strong belief that (Pierson) came to this school ... to utilize those multiple rounds to cause harm to a large number of individuals."
Robinson said that Pierson shot senior Claire Davis, 17, "point blank" in the face and that because everything happened so fast she did not have a chance to run. A statement he read from the family said that Davis has severe head trauma. Robinson said it appears that Pierson did not know Davis.
Robinson said that Pierson purchased the shotgun on Dec. 6 at a local retail outlet. Because he was 18 he was legally able to purchase a shotgun or long rifle in the state of Colorado.
Prior to coming to school on Friday morning, Pierson purchased multiple rounds of ammunition.
The motive for the shooting was "some type of retaliation" against a faculty member over action taken relative to the debate team, Robinson said. But Pierson was not facing any disciplinary action over the incident and was not kicked off the debate team.
Authorities spent Saturday searching a variety of properties around the metro area and conducting a large number of interviews as well as continuing to investigate the high school which has been cordoned off as a crime scene..
Tracy Murphy, a librarian and debate team coach, is believed to have been the gunman's target in the shooting.
According to KUSA-TV in Denver, Murphy implemented "active-shooter protocols" after he learned that Pierson was armed with a shotgun and asking for him on Friday. Murphy then left the scene, a move Robinson earlier said may have helped to limit the potential carnage.
An Arapahoe County deputy escorted Murphy home to pick up a few belongings on Friday night. Murphy declined to talk about the shooting. What he has to say about his interactions with Pierson likely will be a key part of the investigation.
On Saturday, students were able to return to the high school for the first time since being evacuated during the shooting Friday afternoon. They picked up their cars, but they were not allowed to go inside the school, which remains a crime scene. The school was surrounded in yellow crime scene tape.
It is unknown when students will be allowed back into the school to pick up their backpacks, cellphones or other items left behind. Classes are canceled on Monday. Finals were scheduled to start Tuesday, but those also have been canceled.
"Communication about final exams will come as we have more information, but they will not occur in any format until after the holiday break," according to a letter from the Arapahoe High School Administrative Team.
The shooting ? on the eve of the first anniversary of the Newtown school massacre, in which 20 students and six staffers were killed ? sent scores of terrified students and staffers at Centennial's Arapahoe High School scurrying at about 12:30 p.m. Police and other first responders quickly mobilized to surround the 2,220-student school.
The gunman also brought two Molotov cocktails inside the school and exploded one, KUSA-TV reported. The other was found and removed by the bomb squad.
The incident unfolded when the armed student entered the west side of the school from a student parking lot. He told other students he was interested in confronting a specific teacher.
Many students locked themselves in classrooms until first responders arrived. Some said they heard several gunshots in a hallway near the school library.
"We were shaking, we were crying, we were freaking out,'' 9th grader Whitney Riley told CNN.
Jessica Girard was in math class when she said she heard three shots.
"Then there was a bunch of yelling, and then I think one of the people who had been shot was yelling in the hallway, 'Make it stop,' " she said.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...acher/4023553/
Really? Name some.
The ones that came to mind for me were the VTech guy, Columbine, Lanza and the Aurora theater guy (not a school shooter but similar scenario) -- all had been described as 'weird', strange, outcasts etc. and had contact with MH services +/or disciplinary actions at their schools.
Not what I meant--I was talking about MH issues, not 'thugs'.
Ugh - Here - See with your own eyes that shool shootings do not always equate "goth kid" "mental health" "disciplinary actions" or the like. How far back would you like to go, and do you want to only limit it to the US?
Here is just the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._United_States
Here is for the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
Mental Health is absolutely a problem, especially in this country - but it is not the only reason or trigger. Sometimes people are just bad people. And sometimes people just snap. and sometimes people just have a side to them you have no idea about until they're covered in blood.
Let's also not forget about the fact that, even if you've murdered a slew of people, death is a magical thing and removes all of your flaws and bad memories of you from those who knew you.
Fibro Fog has taken over. I am in a constant state of dyscognition so please excuse my retardation.
'The worst things in the world are justified by belief'- Raised by Wolves SOI
"Your life is short, it's the longest thing you'll ever do/ the worse the curse was that your dreams came true/
God is a mirror in which each man sees himself/ Hell is place where you don't need anyone's help"
~You got to cry with out weeping. Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice~
Here's what I don't get about school shooters; they shoot innocent people and not the people they intended to kill. It doesn't make any sense to me.
Also how did that girl survive with a shot, from a shot gun, at point blank range to the face?
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)