MedicCook
09-29-2006, 01:37 PM
Colorado school gunman left suicide note
TV station says he cited his own pain, but not intent to kill others
BAILEY, Colo. - The gunman who took six girls hostage in a high school classroom, sexually assaulting some of them before killing one and taking his own life, left a suicide note, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said Friday.
The note had been delivered to a male relative of the gunman, Duane Morrison, Wegener said. He said the relative does not live in Bailey, but declined to identify the man or where he lives.
The note was found Thursday, Wegener said. He would not say how it was delivered.
No information on the content was released, but KCNC-TV in Denver reported the letter said Morrison planned to commit suicide because of personal pain but gave no indication he planned to attack the school.
Citing an unnamed person who had seen the letter, the station described it as 10 pages long, handwritten and rambling.
Wegener also said that officials are checking a rumor that Morrison might have targeted his victims via the Web site myspace.com and looking at the pages for students at Platte Canyon High School.
'List of female students'
Authorities said they knew of no connection between Morrison and the hostages he held for four hours Wednesday after bursting into a college prep English class.
But Wegener on Thursday said Morrison might have had a list of victims.
“A male high school student was approached by a suspect (Wednesday) and asked about the identity of a list of female students,” Wegener said, later adding that he wasn’t sure if it was a written list or names rattled off by Morrison.
It was not disclosed whether the list included 16-year-old Emily Keyes, whom Morrison shot in the head as a SWAT team broke through the classroom door in a rescue attempt.
KCNC-TV reported that video from cameras outside the school showed Morrison sitting in his Jeep in the school parking lot for about 20 minutes and then mingling with students as classes changed, nearly 35 minutes before the siege began.
Wegener said the Colorado Bureau of Investigation spent much of Thursday examining an apparent roadside campsite about a mile north of the school, where a resident found trash and an assault rifle.
The sheriff said it was too early to know if the rifle was connected to Morrison.
'Pretty horrific'
Investigators said the 53-year-old Morrison was a petty criminal who had a Denver address but had apparently been living in his battered yellow Jeep when he walked inside the school Wednesday with two handguns and a backpack that he claimed contained a bomb. Investigators did not immediately say what was in the backpack.
During the siege, he took the girls hostage in a second-floor classroom and eventually released four of them.
Sheriff Fred Wegener said assaults on some students went beyond touching or fondling.
“It was pretty horrific,” Wegener said.
"He did traumatize and assault our children," he added. "I'll only say that it's sexual in nature."
Morrison, still holding two girls, soon cut off contact and warned that “something would happen at 4 o’clock,” authorities said.
About a half-hour before the deadline, a SWAT team used explosives to blow a hole in a classroom wall in hopes of getting a clear shot at him, but they couldn’t see him through the gap, and they blew the door off the hinges to get inside, said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
Morrison fired at the SWAT officers, shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes in the back of the head as she tried to run away, and then killed himself, authorities said. During the lightning-fast gun battle, police said, they shot Morrison several times.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15057589/
TV station says he cited his own pain, but not intent to kill others
BAILEY, Colo. - The gunman who took six girls hostage in a high school classroom, sexually assaulting some of them before killing one and taking his own life, left a suicide note, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said Friday.
The note had been delivered to a male relative of the gunman, Duane Morrison, Wegener said. He said the relative does not live in Bailey, but declined to identify the man or where he lives.
The note was found Thursday, Wegener said. He would not say how it was delivered.
No information on the content was released, but KCNC-TV in Denver reported the letter said Morrison planned to commit suicide because of personal pain but gave no indication he planned to attack the school.
Citing an unnamed person who had seen the letter, the station described it as 10 pages long, handwritten and rambling.
Wegener also said that officials are checking a rumor that Morrison might have targeted his victims via the Web site myspace.com and looking at the pages for students at Platte Canyon High School.
'List of female students'
Authorities said they knew of no connection between Morrison and the hostages he held for four hours Wednesday after bursting into a college prep English class.
But Wegener on Thursday said Morrison might have had a list of victims.
“A male high school student was approached by a suspect (Wednesday) and asked about the identity of a list of female students,” Wegener said, later adding that he wasn’t sure if it was a written list or names rattled off by Morrison.
It was not disclosed whether the list included 16-year-old Emily Keyes, whom Morrison shot in the head as a SWAT team broke through the classroom door in a rescue attempt.
KCNC-TV reported that video from cameras outside the school showed Morrison sitting in his Jeep in the school parking lot for about 20 minutes and then mingling with students as classes changed, nearly 35 minutes before the siege began.
Wegener said the Colorado Bureau of Investigation spent much of Thursday examining an apparent roadside campsite about a mile north of the school, where a resident found trash and an assault rifle.
The sheriff said it was too early to know if the rifle was connected to Morrison.
'Pretty horrific'
Investigators said the 53-year-old Morrison was a petty criminal who had a Denver address but had apparently been living in his battered yellow Jeep when he walked inside the school Wednesday with two handguns and a backpack that he claimed contained a bomb. Investigators did not immediately say what was in the backpack.
During the siege, he took the girls hostage in a second-floor classroom and eventually released four of them.
Sheriff Fred Wegener said assaults on some students went beyond touching or fondling.
“It was pretty horrific,” Wegener said.
"He did traumatize and assault our children," he added. "I'll only say that it's sexual in nature."
Morrison, still holding two girls, soon cut off contact and warned that “something would happen at 4 o’clock,” authorities said.
About a half-hour before the deadline, a SWAT team used explosives to blow a hole in a classroom wall in hopes of getting a clear shot at him, but they couldn’t see him through the gap, and they blew the door off the hinges to get inside, said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
Morrison fired at the SWAT officers, shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes in the back of the head as she tried to run away, and then killed himself, authorities said. During the lightning-fast gun battle, police said, they shot Morrison several times.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15057589/