Colorado Gunman Wrote Suicide Note Before School Seige
Sept. 29, 2006 — -- The drifter who took six girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo., and sexually assaulted some of them before fatally shooting one and killing himself as police stormed the classroom left a suicide note, authorities said.
The gunman, identified as 53-year-old Duane Morrison, was a former carpenter with no apparent ties to the community and a history of minor criminal offenses. Sheriff Fred Wegener said Morrison sent the note to a male relative before storming the high school.
Wegener did not release the contents of the note. He said the relative did not live in Bailey. Investigators had traced the handgun used in the shooting to the relative.
The small, close-knit town of Bailey is now mourning the loss of 16-year-old Emily Keyes, who was killed by Morrison during the Wednesday standoff.
Wegener said the assaults of the girls went beyond touching or fondling, but gave no specific details.
"It was pretty horrific," he said.
Witnesses said Morrison made his way into the high school dressed like a student.
"He didn't really look like a student. Well, he did because he was wearing all our school stuff, but, when I saw when he turned around and looked at me," said Platte Canyon High School freshman Jesse Kirby. "He had long, gray hair sticking out of his hoodie."
Authorities said the unmarried Morrison was living out of a Jeep.
"Me and Bobby were walking through the parking lot, and we saw him in the yellow Jeep," said senior Roman Tucker.
Some students weren't initially concerned by the stranger's appearance on campus.
"It looked as if he was just going to pick up one of his kids," said senior Bobby Wright. "We didn't think anything of it."
One mile north of the school, agents discovered a makeshift campsite, along with an assault rifle, that could have belonged to Morrison.
"I think anybody who goes in -- an armed individual -- takes on innocent, unarmed children in the sanctuary of a school is the lowest of the most cowardly of the most yellow," said Joe Morales, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety.
Platte Canyon's emergency plan is credited with isolating Morrison from the majority of students, but not all schools are prepared for such a crisis.
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