For months, Karl Pierson’s behavior inspired widespread uneasiness in the run-up to the Arapahoe High School shooting — a time characterized by threats, angry outbursts and the purchase of weapons by a young man some described as a narcissist.
Teachers and classmates also variously called him nerdy, socially inept and short-tempered; impulsive, self-serving and quirky; and funny and sweet but troubled by his parents’ recent divorce.
Insane. Scary.
In his own diary, only portions of which were made available in the wide-ranging investigative report released Friday, Pierson wrote of a 10-year project to exact revenge on those who had wronged him, culminating in his shooting up his school.
“I am a psychopath,” he wrote, “with a superiority complex.”
Pages of his daily planner appeared to be numbered in the manner of a countdown, with a handwritten notation on Dec. 13, the day of the shooting: “Get pumped.”
Pierson left a trail of behavioral reports, was kept home in the wake of outbursts and was the subject of a threat assessment by the school psychologist, who believed him to be a narcissist but classified him as a low level of concern.
But vignettes throughout the school year, strung together, provide snapshots of Pierson’s shifting personality.
Much of the anger and threatening behavior revolved around his involvement with the debate team, where he had shown promise in competition on the Extemporaneous Team but fell short in what coach Tracy Murphy considered leadership qualities.
His removal by Murphy as captain of that team prompted him to become “livid and threatening” during a Sept. 3 meeting that included his mother, Barbara.
Murphy was so haunted by the look of hatred Pierson directed at him that he consulted with others regarding the student’s behavior and later considered resigning.
Pierson’s mother confirmed to assistant principal Kevin Kolasa that her son had said he would kill Murphy. She held him out of school for the next three days and had him assessed at a behavioral health center. Barbara said she was told her son wasn’t a threat to himself or others.
Pierson was allowed to stay on the debate team, but he was prohibited from practices — a sanction he ignored. Murphy did not name a captain to replace Pierson because he feared that student might incur Pierson’s anger.
Social studies teacher Jeff Corson told Murphy that Pierson had been telling other students that they were stupid, and that because of his association with the speech and debate team, he was being perceived as a “verbal bully.”
Outbursts in classes also spoke to his volatility, as did an August 2013 incident in which, according to his mother, he totaled his car after leaving work angry.
Pierson’s father, Mark, said he believed his son had become a proficient shooter, although he did not know he owned any weapons.
Pierson’s peers seemed well aware of his anger, his talk about killing Murphy and his purchase of a firearm — although none said they were aware of any credible plot.
Pierson let multiple students know that he had bought a shotgun that he dubbed “Kurt Cobain,” after the late singer from the rock group Nirvana, as well as a machete. After a third date with one girl, he showed her the gun in his car trunk.
Although several students noted that Pierson said he should kill Murphy and had put him on his “hit list,” they did not believe him to be serious.
After an incident that got Pierson kicked out of Spanish class, one student texted a classmate that Pierson was “honestly scary, like he is going to hurt us, I’m a little nervous. He obviously has the potential to be a threat if little stuff like that makes him crazy.”
Other entries in Pierson’s diary — from Sept. 17, shortly after the debate-team fiasco, to the day of the shooting — chart his preparations for the event, which he called “Saguntum,” possibly a reference to a historic ancient battle.
In tones ranging from rage to excitement, they touch on his behavioral issues, his deeper descent into anger, his efforts at deception on a psychological evaluation and even the tedium of the final countdown to what he knew would be his own death.
He wrote: “I will do something I have wanted to do for a while — mass murder and be in a place of power where I and I alone are judge, jury and executioner.”
He also wrote of taking serotonin supplements that didn’t work and of feeling “like a bomb, ready to let the world feel and experience my hatred for all things of pleasure.”
Pierson said he hoped that his actions would provoke conversation about elementary school teasing: “Words hurt, can mold a sociopath, and will lead someone a decade later to kill.”
In mid-October, he wrote that he had thought about shooting up the place his mother took him for a “psych evaluation,” but instead just tried to mislead: “Let the records show I lied through my teeth through the test.”
By Oct. 26, he had settled on the date of his attack, and about two weeks later he described his state as “estatic” (sic). By late November he lamented the difficulty of going through the motions of everyday life.
But on Friday, Dec. 13, he began his diary with this: “Today is going to be fun.”
Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739, ksimpson@ or
“I feel like a bomb”
Following are excerpts from the diary of Arapahoe High School shooter Karl Pierson:
Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013: enter project saguntum, a 10-year subconscious project for me to exact revenge, not on the individuals who perpetrated wrong, but instead by those I believe have done me wrong. I will shoot up my school, Arapahoe high school, before the year is over. … I am a psychopath with a superiority complex.
Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013: I am filled with hate, I love it.
Monday, Sept. 30, 2013: I feel like a bomb. My head has happy, anger and confusion hormones. I feel like an aneurism could happen at any second.
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013: Saguntum is the project to shoot up (and maybe bomb) Arapahoe High School. No date has been set, but I would like it before new years. Finals week would do nicely, but a date with snow should be sooner.
Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013: the 13th of December is a great date, as the 347th (47 is a great number) date of the year, there are 18 (my age) days left. It is a day of gore, filled with murder, suicide.
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013: I am estatic right now. That December 13 date I chose is perfect, it is 38 days after the fifth of November. I love that date, everything about it.
Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013: It’s weird going through life knowing that in 19 days, I’m going to be dead. That makes school more boring, work torture and everything I love to do, a little less fun. The hardest part is not being able to tell anyone.
Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013: it was a productive weekend. I bought my Stevens 320. It was not the initial gun I was expecting, but I think it will work better. I like the pistol grip. It was quite the process to buy, it was waiting, and waiting, but I loved it. Mom does not know about it.
Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013: I went to Cabela’s and I bought a sling, ammo belts, and of course, ammo. It included 5 sabot slugs! I think I’ll need more. Luckily, I’ll take off tomorrow.
Friday, Dec. 13, 2013: today is going to be fun. I dropped (redacted) off at school today, and went to Walmart, bought some ammo. I then dressed my weapons, loaded my belts, got my backpack ready. I then went to Brunswick, bowled, got some mountain dew (I bought it for the glass bottles). I’m going to make some Molotov cocktails — shaken, not stirred. Update 45 minutes I built my Molotov cocktails, and I think they look great. I only had oil for three, but I think 3 will be more than enough. I am dressed to kill, long underwear, then cargo pants, under armor shirt, CCCP shirt. I have my machete on my belt, but I may re-attach that in the car.
