Posted on 09/27/2006 11:57:19 AM PDT by conservative in nyc
Platte Canyon High School in Bailey was evacuated early Wednesday afternoon because of a hostage situation with a gunman, Park County emergency dispatchers said.
Dispatchers said there was at least one hostage.
The adjoining middle school was also evacuated.
Jan Howard, a secretary to the superintendent of Park County Schools, said the students were being taken to a safe location and only sheriff's deputies and fire officials were being allowed into the schools.
Authorities said U.S. Highway 285 was closed in Bailey because of the situation.
Jefferson County authorities said deputies, including the SWAT team and bomb squad, from their sheriff's office were on stand-by to assist if called by Park County authorities.
KOA, the big AM news radio station in Denver, is reporting that the gunman is holed up in a classroom holding up to 5 hostages. So far, it sound like no one has been injured.
Please pray for a peaceful end to this one...
Not good news. Prayers up for the hostages' safety.
FWIW, Bailey, CO is about 40 miles southwest of Denver, up in the mountains.
Do they know if the gunman is a student?
In addition to kidnapping, the hostage taker here is guilty of violating the school's Gun Free Zone policy.
Previously,
BAILEY - At least four schools are in lockdown after a gunman, claiming to have a bomb, took an unknown number of people hostage inside Platte Canyon High School.
Around noon, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department sent its bomb squad and its SWAT unit to the school after reports of possible gun fire inside the school. Park County requested JeffCo assistance.
Park County Sheriff's Department has confirmed there is one man, with a gun, inside the school. He has claimed to have a bomb. They have also confirmed he has a female hostage. They are also reporting that there are no known injuries at this point.
Platte Canyon High School has been evacuated and both sides of highway 285 have been closed to facilitate the evacuations between mile markers 218 and 222.
Four Jefferson County schools and at least one Park County school are in lockdown.
The schools in Jefferson County are: Conifer High School, West Jefferson Middle School, West Jefferson Elementary School and Elk Creek Elementary School.
Fitzsimmons Middle School has been locked down in Park County.
The school districts are not releasing any information about where evacuated students are being taken. There is no information on what parents, with students in the affected schools, should do at this point. 9NEWS will provide details for parents as soon as we receive them.
Sky9 is on-route to the scene and 9NEWS and 9NEWS.com will continue to update this story as more details become available.
http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=f0907283-0abe-421a-01d9-13eae7db41d7&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf
Live Webcast
http://cbs4denver.com/
Fox News is covering the story off and on, too. Shep keeps on saying Bailey is in Jefferson County, even though the article and my map shows it is in Park County. They're a bit behind - they haven't confirmed any hostages.
Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado reporters of a shooter in the school with shots fired and at least 5 students hostage so far.
On the webcast, they said there were six hostages initially and two were released.
Take it with a grain... i'll wait for two more reports to verify.
there is a live feed on kcnc and other CBS websites are streaming it too
Oh dear, prayers UP!
Bump
Now the webcast said that they're trying to verify if it's in the middle school not the high school? Tech difficulties... so he's talking aloud alone... he can hear the guys on the ground and in the helicopter, we can't.
radio dispatch reports starting at about 11:45 a.m. indicated that an adult male had fired a shot in a high school second-floor classroom after a teacher had refused to do what he asked.
Jan Howard, assistant to school district superintendent Jim Walpole, stated that the high school, and possibly the middle school, was in lockdown mode, meaning no one could enter or leave the building except for authorized personnel.
The dispatcher described a situation in which the male had a "black squarish looking gun and fired one shot when the teacher refused to do what he asked."
At 11:50 a.m., the dispatcher said that the teacher had left the room five minutes before, but that students were still in the room with the man. Howard could not confirm whether a shot had been fired.
Helicopter pilot was talking about this starting as a sexual assault....
talking with the news desk
Threads everywhere bump.
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