BAILEY, Colo.—Nearly a year after a gunman took over a high school classroom and killed a 16-year-old girl, investigators released their final report on the standoff Thursday.
A summary had been released in March, and the full 5,000-page document did not contain any new information about how Duane Morrison held seven girls in a classroom for nearly four hours, sexually assaulting them and killing Emily Keyes as a SWAT team moved in.
The new report does contain some graphic photos of the how Room 206 at Platte Canyon High School looked after officers blasted their way in on Sept. 26, 2006, along with statements from witnesses and investigators.
Photos show Morrison’s bloody body face down near a wall, papers and books strewn on the floor. A girl’s pink and black polka-dot flip-flop lies near his foot. Nearby is one of his two handguns, resting on top of a quiz about Benjamin Franklin and a handwritten essay on “The Crucible.”
Morrison shot Keyes as he held her, wounding himself in the hand, and then shot himself, authorities said.
With a new school year set to begin Aug. 20, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said the report could reopen wounds in the growing mountain town about 55 miles southwest of Denver.
But he thinks it could also help by giving people a glimpse of the traumatic situation the hostages and officers faced, and how he and his deputies entered the school within a few minutes of a 911 call.
“This worked. As much as this was a random act, what we had in place worked,” said Wegener, who has traveled the country talking to school and police groups about how the standoff was handled.
Statements from other hostages are included, telling how Morrison lined them up against a black board, taking them away one by one. One girl reported how she heard Emily crying.
The report also said the mother of a Platte Canyon High School teacher died of a heart attack while watching coverage of the standoff.
In the Columbine school shooting, authorities were criticized for waiting too long before entering the school. Since then, agencies have adopted the “active shooter” approach where the first officers on the scene enter a building instead of waiting for a SWAT team.
The school was put under lockdown at 11:42 a.m. and the first deputy arrived two minutes later, the report said. After two other officers and Wegener arrived, they entered the building.
The report described how they formed a perimeter around the classroom and started talking to Morrison, who claimed to have explosives to blow up the school. Deputies tried to negotiate with him but he didn’t respond.
As some deputies continued to try to negotiate, Wegener helped evacuate other students, but many had already been shepherded out by school staff. As more officers arrived, they formed another perimeter around the part of the school where the classroom is located. Negotiators and the SWAT team were also called in.
With Morrison saying the situation would end at 4 p.m., and five released hostages recounting sexual assaults, Wegener consulted with other officers about what to do next.
The report said the decision to blast into the room was mutual and officers entered at about 3:35 p.m. One hostage escaped but Keyes was shot by Morrison and later died at a hospital.
