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Student, Gunman Dead in Hostage Standoff Last Edited: Wednesday, 27 Sep 2006, 7:36 PM MDT
Created: Wednesday, 27 Sep 2006, 3:24 PM MDT
The female student shot in Wednesday's hostage standoff at Platte Canyon High School arrives at St. Anthony Central Hospital. September 27, 2006.
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BAILEY - The female student shot by an armed gunman in Wednesday's hostage standoff at Platte Canyon High School has died, the family announced tonight.
The girl, whose name has not been released, had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. She was being treated at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver.
Lynn Bigham, who described herself as a family friend of the hostage, said the girl had just turned 16.
The gunman was cornered with the girls in a second-floor classroom and he released four of them, one by one. Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said authorities decided to enter the school after the man cut off negotiations and set a deadline.
At the time, he was still holed up with two girls.
"It was then decided that a tactical solution needed to be done in an effort to save the two hostages," the sheriff said, his voice breaking. He said the suspect shot one of the hostages and then himself, though the investigation was continuing.
"The community's probably going to be in shock right now, rightfully so," he said.
The last hostage was unharmed and talking with authorities. The sheriff said the gunman threatened the girls virtually throughout the four-hour ordeal, at one point fired a shot within the classroom and shielded himself with his hostages.
The suspect was not identified and the sheriff was at a loss to explain a motive.
"I don't know why he wanted to do this," Wegener said.
Students described the suspect as a bearded man toting a camouflage backpack and the sheriff confirmed that: "He did have a backpack and said he would set it off." The man was also toting a handgun.
The lines of students fleeing the high school and a nearby middle school, and the frantic parents scrambling to find their loved ones, reminded many of the scene at Columbine High School in 1999, where two students killed 13 people before taking their own lives. The suburban Denver high school is less than an hour's drive from Bailey.
As with Columbine, bomb squads were at the scene here to investigate at least one suspicious device.
Michael Owens, who has one son at the middle school and another in the high school, said the anxiety was worse because the memory of Columbine was still fresh.
"Things that are out of your control, you just what you can do," he said. "It's like an earthquake."
This time, the situation unfolded not in suburban Littleton but in a narrow, winding canyon carved by the South Platte River about 35 miles southwest of Denver. Ambulances were parked in the end zone of the football field and a tank-like SWAT team vehicle was parked nearby on a closed-down highway swamped with gun-toting sheriff's officers and police.
Students described a chaotic scene inside after the intercom announced "code white." Ani-Rae Lovell said everyone was told to stay in their classrooms.
"It took about 25 minutes before someone opened the door, we didn't know who it was," she said. "It was a Park County sheriff."
Bill Twyford said he received a text message from his 15-year-old son Billy, a student at the high school, at about 11:30 a.m. It said: "Hey there, there's a gun hijacking in school right now. I'm fine, bad situation though."
The two schools have an enrollment of about 770 students, with 460 in the high school. Students from both were taken by bus to another school for a head count, and there were cheers from parents as their loved ones arrived.
Rob Branigan, who picked up his daughter Devin, said the third-grader held up well.
"She's a veteran. She was in New York on 9/11," he said. The little girl said her teacher wasn't sure what was happening but told her students to stay close to the walls.
Other parents pressed authorities for details.
"I am just really upset," said Sherry Husen, whose son plays on the high school football team and was told not to return to school from his part-time job. She said her husband called to tell her there was a shooting at the school
"I'm just terrified. I'm terrified," she said. "I know so many kids in that school."
The family moved to Bailey, a town of about 5,500 people, about 14 years ago. It has become largely a bedroom community for commuters who work in Denver.
"We moved up here for the mountain solitude, and I just never thought this would happen in this school, but it happens everywhere," Husen said. "I don't know what else to say."
John and Michelle Bellomy, who have two sons in the high school, said they were at home when they learned hostages had been taken.
"To sit home, you feel like you have to do something," John Bellomy said. "And by being as close as you can get, there's a sense of community, a shoulder you can cry on. This is a small community ... "
"You never expect something like this to happen here," his wife added.
Other schools in the area were put in lockdown, with students not be allowed to leave until administrators determined it was safe. Kimberly Langston of Swedish Medical Center in suburban Denver said the hospital's emergency department was put on alert.
In Pine Junction, north of Bailey, Heather McDanel was watching the news for details. She has a sister in the high school and two daughters in a nearby elementary school.
"I can't believe it's happening, especially here," she said.