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 Police say Karl Pierson, 18, was upset with a teacher when he
walked into Arapaho High School in the Denver suburb of Centennial
on Friday and shot Claire Davis at point-blank range before taking
his own life in a classroom.
Davis, 17, is in a coma and was listed in critical but stable
condition, her family said in a statement issued through the
hospital where she is being treated.
"We are shattered by the tragic events that took place on Friday at
Arapahoe High School. Our thoughts and prayers are with Claire Davis
and her family," Barbara and Mark Pierson said in a statement
released through a family friend.
"They, and she, have suffered unimaginably, and we pray for her full
recovery," the couple said. "We also pray for the entire Arapahoe
High School community, as we know your lives are forever changed by
this horrific event.
The Piersons said they loved their son dearly and were devastated by
Friday's shooting, adding: "We cannot begin to understand why Karl
did what he did. We ask for privacy during this unthinkably
difficult time and hope that you will respect our need for time to
grieve.
Earlier on Monday, the Arapahoe County Coroner's office said that an
autopsy conducted on the body of Karl Pierson showed he had died of
a shotgun blast to the head.
Pierson was armed with a pump-action shotgun, a machete and three
Molotov cocktails when he entered Arapahoe High School in Centennial
on Friday, firing the weapon and igniting one of the explosive
devices.
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The rampage took place just 8 miles from the scene of one of the
deadliest school massacres in U.S. history, Columbine High School,
where two students gunned down 13 classmates and staff before
killing themselves in 1999.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson has said Pierson had been
upset with a teacher identified as the school's debate coach and
librarian, Tracy Murphy, who had disciplined Pierson, a member of
the debate team, earlier in the school year.
Pierson shot Davis in the face at point-blank range outside the
library, then shot himself as an armed deputy cornered him in the
library, Robinson said.
Investigators concluded their processing of the crime scene, and
turned the facility back to the school district on Monday, the
sheriff's office said. The Littleton School District said classes
will not resume at the 2,000-student school until January.
(Writing by Keith Coffman and Dan Whitcomb;
editing by Cynthia
Johnston and Cynthia Osterman)
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