Shooter was living out of Jeep

Gunman, who had moved from Denver apartment, was arrested in summer

Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 29, 2006 at midnight

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Guns and mountains.

In the end, Duane Roger Morrison would combine both his passions - with horrific results.

The 53-year-old gunman invaded Platte Canyon High School on Wednesday, taking six female students hostage and ultimately murdering 16-year-old Emily Keyes before turning one of two guns on himself as SWAT officers stormed a classroom he turned into his bunker.

Morrison's four hours of sudden and seemingly random violence ended his life, which had been devoid of a significant criminal history, although he was accused two years ago of threatening to settle a score with an assault rifle.

"I was very shocked and surprised" to learn of Morrison's rampage, former neighbor Keith Hoagland said Thursday.

"He was kind of a quiet guy, and he pretty much kept to himself."

Hoagland was Morrison's neighbor for about five years in a southeast Denver apartment complex in the 1300 block of South Birch Street.

Hoagland also used phrases such as "a little strange," "a little bit difficult," and "not overly friendly" to describe his former neighbor.

Morrison spent all the free time that he could in the mountains, camping and firing his guns, Hoagland said.

"Whenever he came back, his Jeep would be covered in mud," Morrison said.

According to the apartment building's manager, Morrison lived on South Birch Street from Feb. 1, 2001, to April 12 of this year.

Hoagland said he thought Morrison moved out because of a rent increase. Two-bedroom units there currently cost $600 to $700 per month.

Park County sheriff's investigators have concluded that for a period of time immediately leading up to Wednesday's rampage, Morrison had been living out of his vehicle.

During Morrison's time at the southeast Denver apartment complex, Hoagland recalled, Morrison was the victim of a burglary in which a number of his weapons were stolen.

A Denver police report confirms that on May 31, 2005, Morrison reported a burglary at his ground-floor, two-bedroom apartment in which he said 15 guns and ammunition were stolen.

Among the weapons reported taken were 10 handguns and five rifles that Morrison estimated in a police report as being worth nearly $13,000.

Morrison could not provide police with serial numbers for any of the stolen weapons. He told police that some time between May 19 and May 31, 2005, someone pried the bedroom window open to his apartment.

In addition to the guns, Morrison claimed that binoculars, a hunting scope, coins, two inexpensive watches and $310 in cash also were taken.

The building manager said that on his lease application, Morrison listed an Aurora deck-building company as his employer. But that business on Thursday denied ever having employed him.

In the haunted house business

Morrison was interviewed briefly by the Rocky Mountain News in October 2004 for a story concerning commercial haunted houses.

In a story that appeared Oct. 22, Morrison spoke about the difficulties of entering the spooking business.

"You should plan not to make any profit for the first three or four years," he said.

He identified himself at that time as co-owner of Commerce City-based Primitive Fear and the Realm of Terror, consistently rated as two of the metro area's scariest commercial haunts.

There also is mention of Morrison in another article about haunted houses that appeared in October-November 2000 of online publication Go-Go Magazine.

That story identified Duane Morrison as one of the designers of haunted houses for Primitive Fear, and quoted him as saying, "We encourage the actors to take the initiative to come up with skits on their own, decide what would be scariest for the room they're in."

Morrison also said, "We don't want people to walk through it in a straight line or an S-shape. We lay it out so it's confusing. We try to cross it up, go back and forth and crisscross."

Morrison's involvement in haunted houses came as news to some in the commercial spook world.

Chris Reinke, who, along with his brother Greg, owns Haunted Mansion, said, "The guy you mentioned? He's never been to any of the meetings that I know of. I've never met the man."

But a 1999 biennial report for Primitive Fear Inc. filed with the Colorado secretary of state lists Morrison as a corporate officer, along with Dale Ervin Sr. and Dale Ervin Jr.

Neither Ervin could be reached Thursday.

Morrison has at least two brothers living in the Denver area. One brother, in Aurora, emphatically turned away a reporter on Thursday. A second man believed to be a brother, and living in north Denver, did not return calls for comment.

Morrison's mother is deceased, and his father lives in Tulsa, Okla. Reached by phone Thursday, Morrison's father, Bobby, said his son was raised in Colorado and he hasn't seen him for two years.

He said he was aware of what his son had allegedly done at Platte Canyon High School. But he wouldn't discuss the tragedy.

"I don't know anything about it," he said. "I don't feel I want to say anything right now."

Charged with harassment

Morrison's most significant brush with police before Wednesday came in November 2004.

On Nov. 22, 2004, Morrison allegedly called Rocky Mountain Harley Davidson in Littleton, according to court records, in an agitated state and complained about having received one of the business's catalogs in the mail.

In a message left on the firm's voice mail, Morrison "threatened to come to the store with an assault rifle to see if that would fix the situation," according to court records.

Morrison reportedly had made earlier harassing calls, stemming from a complaint he had over service he'd received there.

"We took it seriously enough that we called the Littleton police, and they took it seriously, too," store general manager Jay Seibel said.

Morrison was charged with harassment and subsequently was named in a fugitive warrant after failing to appear for a court date.

This past summer, on July 11, he was arrested on that warrant by Lakewood police at the Stonewall Motel on West Colfax Avenue and charged with obstructing justice for his failure to show up in court to respond to the harassment charge.

According to Littleton Municipal Court clerk Pat Spindler, Morrison pleaded guilty on Aug. 15, received a suspended nine-day jail term and was ordered not to return to Rocky Mountain Harley Davidson.

Seibel said he made the connection to that case Thursday "as soon as we heard his name."

"It was shocking. And it's sad, for that girl's family," Seibel said.

When investigators searched Morrison's vehicle in the wake of Wednesday's tragedy, they found prescription medication and a key to a $40 a night room at the Stonewall Motel.

A manager at that establishment said Morrison had only stayed there one night a few months ago.

Divorced in California in 1984

Records in California indicate that Morrison also resided in the Sacramento area for a number of years as a younger man, and that he divorced from his wife, Sharon, in Sacramento County in November 1984.

Property records show Morrison lived at a suburban Sacramento apartment during the mid-1980s and at a house in an impoverished, struggling neighborhood in north Sacramento until 1989.

The small house on a cul-de-sac sits across from recently built two-story homes with owners who are far too new to remember Morrison.

A law enforcement source in Sacramento said Morrison was arrested there about 20 years ago on suspicion of auto theft, but charges never were filed.

He has no record with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2742.

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