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We Survived The Shooting At Platte Canyon High School

Platte Canyon Colorado High School, students, reunited, family, shooter, Duane Morrison

Platte Canyon Colorado High Scool Students were reunited with their parents after evacuating the school.

We decided to use explosives as we entered the classroom. In the blur that followed, Morrison shot Emily. He fired on the officers. Then he turned the gun on himself, committing suicide.

Cassidy Grigg and Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener , U.S.

Date Posted: 09/28/06

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When Duane Morrison, 54, walked into the Platte Canyon High School taking six teenage girls hostage, terror took over the small Colorado community of Bailey, about 65 kilometers south-west of Denver, prompting the evacuation of neighboring schools and the closing of roads leading into the town.

Here 16-year-old student Cassidy Grigg, who was at the school that day, and Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener, an officer on the scene who also had a son in the school as the drama unfolded, tell what they experienced.

There were four hours of panic. SWAT team officers were shouting through a classroom door trying to communicate with an -until then- unidentified man. Morrison had a gun. He said he had a bomb and he was using at least one of the girls as a shield. He finally shot one of the students, Emily Keyes, to death and then took his own life.

For many people it was a frightening reminder of the 1999 killings at Columbine High School in nearby Littleton. Today, Colorado is still in shock and asking why.

Note from the editor: The first time we talked to Cassidy Grigg he said he was in the classroom with the students. Later on he admitted he lied about his role and whereabouts during the taking of hostages at Platte Canyon High School. Therefore, his testimony has been changed accordingly in this article.

Cassidy Grigg (16): My friends and I were hanging out as any other school day here at Platte Canyon when, all of the sudden, this creepy guy walked in the classroom, firing a shot at the floor and ordering them to line up. I was not in the room with them, but my friends and I were terrified. We thought they all were going to die.

He told them to face the chalkboard so our backs were turned against him, and then he came up one by one and told us to stay or to go. You could tell that he wanted the females because he asked all the girls to stay.

I heard he was going from right to left telling the students who should leave and who should stay. He stayed there only with the girls of the group.

Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener: The man had walked into the high school shortly before noon on Wednesday and taken six female students hostage. Over the next few hours, we had some success defusing the crisis; he released four of the six girls, one by one.

But by 3:30 pm, the stranger had stopped talking. He had set a deadline. I can't tell you what he threatened to do by 4:00 pm, all I can say is that he forced us to act.

My options were was either wait and face the possibility of having two dead hostages or act and try to save the girls. At that point I knew that Morrison had molested all six girls and sexually assaulted at least two of them. That's why I made the decision I made. We had to try to save the two girls who remained inside.

We decided to use explosives as we entered the classroom.