CENTENNIAL — One student heard two gun blasts, the next heard three. A different boy could see only the shooter’s feet as he paced around the library, but his classmate locked eyes with the gunman.
Students in and near the library at Arapahoe High School spent about 80 terrifying seconds trapped with Karl Pierson before he killed himself. In a report released Friday, accounts from students and staff reveal that each second — from the first shotgun blast to the last — was filled with chilling details.
Most students heard the shots from the hallway where Pierson fired three shotgun rounds at fellow senior Claire Davis. From a nearby classroom, one girl watched through a window as Claire slumped on top of her friend.
Claire’s friend, who met her at the bench most days to share a cookie, scrambled into a nearby room. Hysterical, hyperventilating, and with her left side covered in Claire’s blood, the girl screamed, “My friend has been shot!”
Claire’s classmates saw her lying on the floor as they sprinted out of the building. A teacher tried to creep out of his classroom to reach her, but retreated after he saw help had arrived.
Pierson carried the gun with both hands as he continued around the corner. Students fled the hallway — some ran so fast they reached nearby homes, and others flagged down passing cars in an effort to get away.
Several students were able to run out of the nearby library before Pierson stormed through the doors shouting, “Where is Murphy!” He then fired two rounds toward the desk of his speech and debate coach, Tracy Murphy.
The shots missed Murphy as he ran out the door toward the teachers’ parking lot, hoping to lure Pierson away from the students.
But a handful of students could not get out in time.
From underneath the desk where he was hiding, a student could hear Pierson reloading his shotgun. He could smell gasoline, but never saw the gunman throw the Molotov cocktail into the bookshelves.
Under a different desk, another student watched Pierson’s feet and legs as he moved around the library before he heard what sounded like someone reloading a gun.
One girl recognized Pierson when he walked into the library. She heard footsteps and another shot from her hiding place.
She knew Karl. She knew “he did not like to be wrong.” She knew she couldn’t stay there.
The girl sprinted from her hiding place into the parking lot knowing she was an easy target.
