The Platte Canyon High School student who told NBC's "Today" show yesterday that he had been in the classroom at the beginning of a fatal hostage standoff was back on the program, apologizing for lying.
"I just want the people that were in the class to know that I'm sorry, as well as those that called me a hero," Casey Grigg said. "I'm just another kid that was there."
"I hope that people will know me for who I am, and not a liar," he said.
Grigg told NBC that the man walked in, fired a warning shot at the floor and ordered the students to line up. He told some to leave and others - all girls - to stay.
"You could tell that he wanted the females," Cassidy said. "He tapped me on the shoulder and he told me to leave the room. I told him, 'I don't want to leave."' "He told me that if I didn't go then he would pretty much kill me
On Thursday afternoon, Casey's mother, who appeared with her son on the TV show, revealed that she had subsequently learned her son had lied, and had not been in the classroom.
Also this morning, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener appeared on CBS' "The Early Show."
"I want to put an end to whether it was random or whether it was a deliberate attack," Wegener said.
Investigators say Duane Morrison, 53, shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes before killing himself just as SWAT team members broke into the second-story classroom where he had held the students over four hours on Wednesday.
They still were unaware of any connections between Morrison and the school.
On Thursday, Wegener said the suspect approached a male high school student Wednesday and "asked about the identity of a list of female students." The sheriff said he wasn't sure if it was a written list or names rattled off by Morrison.
It was not disclosed whether the list included Keyes.
KCNC/CBS4 TV in Denver reported that video from cameras outside the school showed Morrison sitting in his Jeep in the school parking lot for about 20 minutes and then mingling with students as classes changed, nearly 35 minutes before the siege began.
Investigators said the 53-year-old Morrison was a petty criminal who had a Denver address but apparently had been living in his battered yellow Jeep.
Morrison walked inside the school with two handguns and a backpack that he claimed contained a bomb. Investigators did not say what was in the backpack.
During the siege, Morrison released four hostages. While still holding two girls, he cut off contact with deputies and warned that "something would happen at 4 o'clock," authorities said.
About a half-hour before the deadline, a SWAT team used explosives to blow a hole in a classroom wall in hopes of getting a clear shot at him. When they couldn't see him through the gap, they blew the door off the hinges to get inside, said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
Morrison fired at the SWAT officers, shot Keyes as she tried to run away and then killed himself, authorities said. During the gun battle, police shot Morrison several times, they said.
The sheriff said he spoke to Emily's family and explained his decision to try to take Morrison by force.
"They were surprisingly supportive of everything I did," Wegener told CBS. "They are extraordinary people indicating that are going through a rough time. I hold the responsibility for Emily in my heart. I'll live with that for the rest of my life."
