Colorado & Denver News

BAILEY, Colo. (CBS4) ― A female student was airlifted in critical condition from Platte Canyon High School following a hostage situation that appeared to be over by 4 p.m. According to authorities, the man who entered the school and fired shots was dead. He reportedly took six hostages at the start of the standoff around noon and released four of them through the afternoon. The second hostage appeared to be without injury and walked out of the school on her own.

The two female hostages were students at the high school, according to Jacki Kelley, a spokesperson for Jefferson County Sheriff's Office who was releasing information on the scene in Park County. She said there were no reports of injuries.

Authorities from Park County, Jefferson County, Clear Creek County and the state patrol were on the scene working. Kelley said negotiations with the gunman were ongoing.

Students in Platte Canyon High were moved to the adjoining Fitzsimmons Middle School when the shooting started where they were placed in lockdown.

At about 2 p.m., authorities moved school buses to the back of the school complex. Authorities started moving middle and high school students from the middle school to the buses for evacuation. The buses were taking middle school students to Deer Creek Elementary first. High School students were going to be moved next.

Parents were being told to head for Deer Creek Elementary to be reunited with their children.

There was no information about the gunman and any relation he may have to the school or students who were taken hostage.

Authorities said U.S. Highway 285 was closed in Bailey because of the situation.

Bill Twyford said he received a text message from his 15-year-old son Billy, a student at the high school, at about 11:30 a.m. It said: "Hey there, there's a gun hijacking in school right now. I'm fine, bad situation though."

Twyford said he had not heard from his son since then and wasn't sure if he was among the hostages.

Jefferson County authorities are all too familiar with school attacks: The sheriff's office handled the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in which two students killed 13 people before taking their own lives.

"Any adult who holds kids hostage is reprehensible," said Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was among the students slain at Columbine.

In Bailey, horrified parents pressed authorities for details.

"I am just really upset," said Sherry Husen, whose son plays on the high school football team and was told not to return to school from his part-time job. She said her husband called to tell her there was a shooting at the school

"I'm just terrified. I'm terrified," she said. "I know so many kids in that school."

The family moved to Bailey from suburban Denver about 14 years ago.

"We moved up here for the mountain solitude, and I just never thought this would happen in this school, but it happens everywhere," she said. "I don't know what else to say."

Michael Owens, who has one son at the middle school and another in the high school, said the anxiety was worse because the memory of Columbine was still fresh.

"Things that are out of your control, you just what you can do," he said. "It's like an earthquake."

John and Michelle Bellomy, who have two sons in the high school, said they were at home when they learned hostages had been taken.

"To sit home, you feel like you have to do something," John Bellomy said. "And by being as close as you can get, there's a sense of community, a shoulder you can cry on. This is a small community ... "

"You never expect something like this to happen here," his wife added.

Other schools in the area were put in lockdown for a time, meaning students would not be allowed to leave until administrators determined it was safe. A spokeswoman for Jefferson County schools, Lynn Setzer, said she didn't believe students in nearby Conifer and elsewhere were in danger.

Kimberly Langston of Swedish Medical Center in suburban Denver said the hospital's emergency department was put on alert but had not received word if it would receive any patients.

In Pine Junction, north of Bailey, Heather McDanel was watching the news for details. She has a sister in the high school and two daughters in a nearby elementary school.

"I can't believe it's happening, especially here," she said.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)