The tragic story of Emily Keyes
It was that morning on September 27, 2006. A man, claiming to possess a bomb in his backpack, walked into Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado. Hours later on, the afternoon ended in tragedy. Emily Keyes was dead. She was just 16 many years old.
It started at about 11.40 a.m. MDT when 53-year-old Duane Roger Morrison, who had been imprisoned just before for larceny and possession of marijuana, walked in to the school carrying a .40-caliber Glock 22 pistol. He was also carrying a backpack, which he said was carrying explosives. Just before that, he was witnessed sitting inside a yellow Jeep inside the school parking great deal, about an hour prior to he entered the school – embarking on a hostage crisis that would claim the life of an innocent young girl.
After Morrison entered a classroom, wherever Sandra Smith taught Honors English, he fired his handgun to the air and instructed all with the female students to stand facing the chalkboard. He then assaulted all of them.
A “code white” alert was sounded over the intercom and college students had been instructed to continue to be in their classrooms. Six hostages remained in the classroom and Morrison spoke via telephone and ued the student hostages as relayers among the negotiators and himself, simply because he did not wish to speak directly with them.
After four with the six girls were introduced, Emily Keyes sent two brief text messages to her parents. “I love you guys” and “I love u guys. k?”
A total of 800 college students from both Platte Canyon High School and also the nearby Fitzsimmons Middle School had been rapidly evacuated. Morrison’s demands are still unknown, but law enforcement said his main concern was for law enforcement to back away.
By the time the four student hostages have been released, a bomb squad, SWAT group from Jefferson County, and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been sent for the scene. Morrison explicitly stated that he would stop negotiating at 4:00 p.m., saying “something would happen” at that time.
SWAT group members witnessed Morrison assaulting the girls, and Wegener made the choice to preserve the hostages by force, stating after, “My decision was either wait—[and have the] possibility of having two dead hostages or act and try to save what I feared he would do to them. … Because I’d want whoever was in my position to do the same thing, and that is to save lives.”
The police burst via the door at around 3:45 p.m. Following utilizing the hostages as human shields against the Jefferson County SWAT group, Morrison shot at the policemen, after which at hostage 16-year-old junior Emily Keyes, who was attempting to run away. Morrison was shot twice by police, but committed suicide just before law enforcement bullets had killed him.
Emily Keyes was taken by helicopter to some Denver hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 4.32 p.m.
To this day, Emily is remembered for her kindness, spirit, fierce joy, and dignity. In honor of her, there’s now the ‘I Love U Guys Foundation.’
