Colorado School Shooter Legally Purchased 12-Gauge Shotgun

[Jefferson23]

3. Colorado shooter was said to be targeting his school debate coach

CENTENNIAL, Colo.—An 18-year-old high school student reportedly frustrated when he was ejected from the school debate club has been identified as the shooter who opened fire at a suburban Colorado high school Friday, wounding another student before killing himself.

Karl Halverson Pierson, 18, was said to be angry at the school debate coach and entered the school shortly after noon Friday with a shotgun, repeatedly calling the teacher’s name, according to interviews with students and law enforcement officials.

When he found the teacher, he “shot once and missed” before the teacher fled, according to senior Frank Woronoff, 18, who talked with the instructor—who seemed shell-shocked afterward—outside the school as students fled for safety.

“He could barely speak. All he could say were the same statements over and over. He seemed like he might have a panic attack,” Woronoff said of the teacher, whose name has not been released by authorities.

Contrary to earlier reports, there was only one gunshot victim, a 15-year-old girl, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told reporters. “There’s no reason to believe she was a target,” the sheriff said, adding that it was unclear whether the girl had tried to confront the shooter.

A second girl was mistakenly thought to have been shot, but she had blood on her only because she had come into contact with the injured girl, Robinson said.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-colorado-school-shooter-identified-20131213,0,7601970.story#ixzz2nUZnuZ6s