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| Casper police leave the Wold Physical Science Building while investigating a murder and suicide at Casper College, Friday Nov. 30, 2012, in Casper, Wyo. Two people were killed by a sharp object, according to Casper police. The attacker then killed himself. A man wielding a sharp-edged weapon killed one person in a Casper neighborhood Friday before killing a male teacher and himself in front of students in a community college classroom, causing a campus-wide lockdown as authorities tried to piece together what happened. |
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) -- Police released more details Saturday of a grisly murder-suicide at a Wyoming community college, saying a man shot his father in the head with a bow and arrow in front of a computer science class not long after fatally stabbing his father's live-in girlfriend at their home a couple miles away.
Computer science instructor
James Krumm, 56, may have saved some of his students' lives Friday by
giving them time to flee while trying to fend off his son, Christopher
Krumm, 25, of Vernon, Conn., Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said.
"I
can tell you the courage that was demonstrated by Mr. Krumm was
absolutely without equal," he said, adding that his actions could offer
some measure of comfort to those affected by the killings.
He
said police still were trying to figure out what motivated Christopher
Krumm to attack his father and girlfriend, 42-year-old Heidi Arnold, a
math instructor at the college. Arnold was found stabbed to death in
front of the home she shared with James Krumm.
After
shooting his father with the arrow, Christopher Krumm stabbed himself,
then fatally stabbed his father in the chest in a struggle in the
classroom, Walsh said.
Police arrived to find
James Krumm dead and Christopher Krumm barely living; the younger Krumm
died soon after students fled in a panic. Authorities locked down the
campus for two hours.
Police began getting reports about the attack on Arnold soon after they responded by the dozen to the campus attack.
Christopher
Krumm had smuggled the compound bow - a type much more powerful and
effective for hunting than a simple, wooden bow - onto campus beneath a
blanket, Walsh said.
He said Krumm also had two knives with him and the knife used was "very large."
"It's one of those situations you don't think is going to come home. It's not going to happen here," Walsh said.
Arnold
died of multiple stab wounds. Her body was found in the gutter of her
street. Evidence suggested much of the attack occurred outside the home,
Walsh said.
Christopher Arnold had recently
driven to Casper from Connecticut and had been staying at a local hotel.
He had no significant history of encounters with police.
Police were uncertain what went awry in Christopher Krumm's relationship with his father.
"It's difficult to say. I don't think it was very close," Walsh said.
Casper,
population 56,000, is about 250 miles northwest of Denver and Wyoming's
second-largest city after the state capital, Cheyenne. Wyomingites
refer to Casper as the "Oil City" because it is a hub of the state's
small oil industry.
Casper College is one of
seven colleges in Wyoming's community college system. The campus was
mostly quiet Saturday morning. Fathers and sons shot hoops in the school
gym. A small group of drama students rehearsed a play in the school
theater just across the street from the attack.
The
building where the attack happened remained cordoned off by police tape
that whipped in a brisk wind. A security guard let students back in,
one at a time, to retrieve belongings they'd left behind.
Andra
Charter, a 20-year-old sophomore, emerged with a coffee mug. She
recalled hearing screams outside her biology class before getting word
about what had happened.
"As we were walking out, there was a girl screaming, `There's somebody stabbing Mr. Krumm!'" Charter said.
No students were hurt in the attack.
Krumm
was head of the college's computer science department. He was born
north of London and also spent part of his childhood in Germany,
according to the college website.
He held
degrees from Casper College, a bachelor's degree and MBA from the
University of Wyoming, and a master's in computer science from Colorado
State University.
Arnold held a master's
degree in mathematics from the University of Oregon and a bachelor's
degree in math from University of California Davis.
The college planned a candlelight vigil and memorial service Tuesday.
