In Centennial, Colorado, students and staff fled Arapahoe High School after a student shooter entered the building and injured two students while looking for the librarian on Friday, December 13; one of the evacuated students included former Libertyville resident Ben Hanson while the only death was that of the assailant, Karl Pierson.
At 12:33 in the afternoon on Friday, December 9, students and staff of Arapahoe High School were going about their daily routines for a school day. Pierson, a senior, avid runner and member of the debate team, entered the school with a myriad of deadly weapons, including a shotgun, machete, and three Molotov cocktails.
Going into a door adjacent with the school library, Pierson shot a random round down a long hallway before entering the library. According to CNN News, his target was the school’s librarian, who had disciplined Pierson earlier that school year in September, but after the first round, she had fled the school to seek help.
As he entered the library, he shot a girl in the head at point-blank range. After shooting randomly for a second time, Pierson ignited at least three bookshelves with one of the Molotov cocktails, smoking out the library. Pierson then fired one last round toward the library’s back corner before taking his own life. The shooting lasted for a minute and 20 seconds.
“My class heard a bang but we thought someone was moving something but then there were two more and we all froze and the teacher in the room next to us came rushing in saying ‘Lockdown, lockdown’,” said sophomore Ben Hanson.
Ben Hanson lived in Libertyville and attended Oak Grove Middle School until his family moved to Colorado two years ago. Hanson said school has been cancelled this following week, along with final exams.
“There have been several candle vigils, one at a park and around 2,500 people showed up, so that was incredible and felt really good,” said Ben.
According to Denver’s local ABC station, the girl shot in the head was identified as 17-year-old Claire Esther Davis, who was rushed to get medical attention and is now in critical condition. Davis’s parents told CNN that first responders and the trauma team at Littleton Adventist Hospital had saved her life, but she now has severe head trauma.
Pierson’s mother was out of town on family business, but both parents have spoken with investigators, who added that the dead man appeared to have acted alone. His parents have released a statement, according to CNN, police have executed search warrants on both his mother’s and father’s houses and Pierson’s car, though authorities are not releasing what exactly has been found.
After they were certain the shooter was no longer a threat, police escorted the school’s 2,000 students from the school buildings. TV crews, who by now had descended on the campus, showed dozens of students walking out of the school, hands in the air. Some stood in lines at a field, where they were patted down by police, to insure that the nightmare was over.
