Free Republic

About 5,000 motorcyclists rode in a caravan in honor of the 16-year-old girl who was shot at her high school by a gunman who held her hostage. The motorcyclists, including Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener, rode 40 miles to Platte Canyon High School from Columbine High School, the scene of the nation's worst school shooting in 1999. It was Wegener who made the call for SWAT officers to invade a classroom where authorities said Duane Morrison, 53, took Emily Keyes and other girls hostage and molested them on Sept. 27. Morrison shot Emily in the head after SWAT officers stormed...

DENVER, United States (AFP) - The gunman at the center of a Colorado school siege sexually assaulted his hostages before fatally wounding one of the captives and killing himself, police said. The gunman, identified for the first time as 54-year-old Duane Morrison, took six female hostages at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, around 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Denver, after entering the building around lunchtime on Wednesday. Four hostages were released before the bloody end to the siege, which took place after police SWAT teams decided to storm the second-floor classroom where Morrison was barricaded inside. Park County...

BAILEY, Colo. - The gunman who took six girls hostage in a high school classroom and killed one of them before taking his own life left a suicide note, Sheriff Fred Wegener said Friday. Wegener did not release the text of the note. He said investigators were analyzing the note's contents and more details could be made public later in the day. He said the note had been delivered to a male relative of the gunman in Colorado. He would not identify the relative or say where in the state he lives, but said the man does not live in...

Platte Canyon High School in Bailey was evacuated early Wednesday afternoon because of a hostage situation with a gunman, Park County emergency dispatchers said. Dispatchers said there was at least one hostage. The adjoining middle school was also evacuated. Jan Howard, a secretary to the superintendent of Park County Schools, said the students were being taken to a safe location and only sheriff's deputies and fire officials were being allowed into the schools. Authorities said U.S. Highway 285 was closed in Bailey because of the situation. Jefferson County authorities said deputies, including the SWAT team and bomb squad, from their...