Shooting Victim Remains in Critical Condition; High School Gunman's Friend Speaking Out
FLORES: In the next few days, we expect to learn more information about Friday's shooting at a Colorado high school. And the condition also of Claire Davis, the 17-year-old girl wounded in that attack. CNN's Ana Cabrera has details.</s>ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Her family just saying they want everybody to pray for her. That she's not doing very well again. She has severe head trauma and in fact a lot of people offering and lifting up those prayers last night in a vigil that was held nearby the high school here. Candlelight vigil with the community members who came out to pray for not only her healing but also the healing of the entire community. The sheriff still believes the motive here is revenge against the school's speech and debate coach. Apparently he had a confrontation and disciplined Pierson who is on that team sometime back in September. And even at that time, apparently Pierson made a threat against this speech and debate coach. But nobody believed that it would result in what happened here Friday.</s>FLORES: And that was Ana Cabrera reporting. In the wake of Friday's shooting, students of Arapahoe High School are speaking out about the gunman Karl Pierson and what kind of person he was. Some say he was friendly and outspoken. Others say he made them nervous. Will Ripley from CNN affiliate KUSA talked to a young man who says, you know, that looking back, there were warning signs.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, you never think it's going to be your school.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just told me that they are all really scared and they are locked in their classrooms.</s>WILL RIPLEY, REPORTER, KUSA: Friday's chaos, Saturday's disbelief.</s>JOE REDMOND, STUDENT AT ARAPAHOE HIGH SCHOOL: Here, like my school, like the people that I know?</s>RIPLEY: Arapahoe senior Joe Redmond was hiding in a hallway, listening to a school administrator's radio.</s>REDMOND: So we heard a play-by-by of everything that happened while we're sitting in this hallway.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a student down in the Athletic Hall.</s>REDMOND: And I heard it was Karl Pierson. And I broke down because he's my friend.</s>RIPLEY: Close friends for three years. Co-captains of the speech and debate team.</s>KARL PIERSON, GUNMAN: Hi, I'm Karl Pierson, a freshman at Arapahoe High School in Middleton.</s>RIPLEY: During this 2010 Nine News debate, he asked a question that now seems chilling.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you like your legacy to be?</s>RIPLEY: Concerned about his own legacy even then he told friends he had big future plans, plans centered around his passion for speech and debate. His coach and mentor was school librarian, Tracy Murphy.</s>REDMOND: He went to nationals with Mr. Murphy. And I know that they did not get along on this trip to nationals. Karl had threatened to kill Mr. Murphy, kind of half-jokingly. And Mr. Murphy brought that to the administration and Karl got suspended for that.</s>RIPLEY: He says his friend was never the same after that suspension in September.</s>REDMOND: So when Carl came back, he was pretty angry. He felt like the suspension had ruined his chances in getting into college and ruined his future.</s>RIPLEY: Looking back Redmond says there were signs of trouble. Classmates say Pierson was punished in the past for using strong language and could be verbally combative.</s>REDMOND: Whenever got angry, like, you know, I just want to -- I just want to shoot everyone up, you know.</s>RIPLEY: Redmond and others assumed he was joking.</s>REDMOND: Obviously he wasn't kidding.</s>RIPLEY: Never did he think his friend was capable of this.</s>REDMOND: Karl was a good guy. And he made my days better. And that's what hurts the most is he wasn't a villain.</s>RIPLEY: Today's disbelief, tomorrow's determination.</s>REDMOND: I want to see Arapahoe recover from this.</s>FLORES: Now both teenagers also ran cross country together. They had a race at Columbine High School last year and even visited the memorial. And still ahead, he won the Heisman then he took the NFL by storm. Today Robert Griffin was on the bench. So what went wrong? We'll talk about it, next.