dustin pierce article from the st louis post dispatch st louis missouri 19 sept 1989

Police Say Was Acting McKEE, Ky. (AP) - An armed teen-ager who was apparently acting out the scenario to a Stephen King novel stalked into a high school classroom and took 11 classmates hostage Monday, police said. After a daylong standoff, he released them all and surrendered. No one was injured in the confrontation, which began about 9:50 a.m. and ended at 6:35 p.m. at Jackson County High School, police said. The youth fired two shots, one at the ceiling of the classroom and another at a window, state police said. The teen-ager's only request to police was to speak to his father, and he told his hostages that he did not want to hurt anyone, police said. The last two hostages were freed shortly after 5 p.m., and the youth gave up an hour and a half later, authorities said. The hostage-taker was identified by police as Dustin Pierce, 17, a senior at the school who was described as a good student. Police said they were unsure what charges would be lodged against Pierce. He was taken to a juvenile holding center in the Clay County Jail in nearby Manchester. McKee is a town of 250 people about 50 miles southeast of Lexington in the Appalachian foothills. "He was unbalanced," said state police Detective Bob Stephens, who negotiated with Pierce throughout the day at Jackson County High School. "He was a confused young man. He was a young man looking for somebody to help him." Throughout the daylong negotiations, Stephens said he feared that Pierce would try to kill himself because he seemed to be carrying out the scenario of the Stephen King thriller "Rage," which he had been reading. During a search of Pierce's room at home, police found a paperback copy of the book, in which the lead character is shot by police. The book tells the story of a high school boy who hates his father and begins bringing his father's pistol to school. Eventually, the lead character in the story takes a T Teen-ager Out Novel IND. OHIO ILL. Hostage Site Louisville KENTUCKY • McKee 100 miles TENN. AP ABOVE LEFT: Jequita Hall (right) hugging her daughter, Belinda, 15, after the girl was released on Monday by a boy who held her and several other students hostage at Jackson County High School near McKee, Ky. ABOVE RIGHT: Dustin Pierce, 17, who is alleged to have held his classmates hostage. class of 24 students hostage and kills a teacher. Police also found papers that Pierce had written that made references to dying at 9 o'clock. At one point during the day, "he said it'll all end at 9," Stephens said. Pierce's sole demand throughout was to talk to his father, Stephens said. "He hasn't seen his father, my understanding, since he's 4 years old," Stephens said. "He never would commit to why he wanted to talk to his father," Stephens said. Psychologists and FBI experts who assisted Stephens pored over "Rage" AP during the day and relayed its details to the negotiators. After reading the book and Pierce's notes, "We thought suicide was what we'd have to deal with at the end," Stephens said. Pierce released his hostages throughout the day in exchange for items such as food, soft drinks and cigarettes. Police Trooper Ed Robinson said the hostage-taker was armed with a shotgun, a .357-caliber Magnum revolver and "some type of automatic pistol." Eversole identified the other weapons as a .44-caliber Magnum and a 12-gauge shotgun. that on for and Israel's the ties Hungarian

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

dustin pierce article from the st louis post dispatch st louis missouri 19 sept 1989

dustin pierce article from the st louis post dispatch st louis missouri 19 sept 1989

St. Louis Post-Dispatch