Three hundred sixty-four days after the Newtown shooting, Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, just eight miles from the site of the Columbine shooting, experienced another shocking tragedy. Karl Pierson, a senior, arrived on the grounds armed with a shotgun, a bandolier stocked with ammunition, a machete, and three Molotov cocktails He fired his gun five times, then killed himself.
In the process of what authorities and the shooter himself called “revenge” against a teacher he had a dispute with, Pierson wounded 17-year-old Claire Davis, a fellow senior. Davis suffered a head wound and remains in critical condition. Her friends held a vigil for her Saturday evening, which was attended by hundreds from the community. Many maintained the importance of aiding her family through this difficult time, but her father released a statement to CNN Saturday that Claire was “not doing very well” and that doctors fear swelling to her brain.
The shooting was unexpected and authorities surmise Davis was a random victim rather than a target.
Update 12/21/13 – Claire Davis passed away around 6.30 Eastern Time.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/14/us/colorado-school-gunman-karl-pierson/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/15/us/colorado-school-shooting-victim/
