Colorado Shooting Victim's Father Forgives Killer -(Vid Linked)-

Video at link, I suggest you watch it (I had to double click 'Play'). Bring some kleenex.

Claire Davis' father asked people to forgive the fellow student who shot and killed his 17-year-old daughter at Arapahoe High School.

It was an amazing and generous request to make at a celebration of Claire's life on New Year's Day at the National Western Livestock Show complex in Denver.

The request was all the more stunning because Michael Davis invoked the name of his daughter's killer -- 18-year-old Karl Pierson. Many people, including public officials, have refused say Pierson's name publicly, saying they didn't want to give another school shooter any notoriety. Pierson took his own life after shooting 17-year-old Claire with a shotgun in a school hallway on Dec. 13.

"The young man that shot Claire had a name. His name was Karl Pierson," the father said at the memorial. "For reasons most of us, or all of us, will never know, Karl allowed himself to become filled with anger and rage and hatred.

I was very moved when I heard this speech earlier today. I have no doubt they were raising an amazing young woman, which makes this whole thing all the more tragic (if that's possible). To be able to forgive your child's killer, and ask that others do as well takes a very strong, very amazing person of deep character. I'm not sure if I would be able to do it. I like the line about the young man no longer being with us, so it's no longer our responsibility to judge.

The whole eulogy is incredibly moving, I got pretty choked up.

This is the quote that got me:

"We would like to ask you to join us and honor Claire by forever showing compassion, forgiveness, inducing whatever is within your power to reach out to those around you that might need the light of your love to help guide them to through the darkness," he said.

Link

www.denverpost.com...
"And, he(father) shared the last words Claire Davis uttered and the grace she displayed before she was shot inside Arapahoe High School. "Oh, my gosh, Karl, what are you doing?" she asked her killer."

That's a new detail we haven't heard before. How do they know she said that?


"My wife and I forgive Karl Pierson for what he did because he didn't know what he was doing. ... "Karl is no longer with us. It's no longer our responsibility to pass judgment."

Hmmm.... They are very quick to forgive the killer of their daughter. A little too quick, if you ask me.


" "One minute, Claire was sitting with a friend having cookies, the next, she stepped into harm's way," Gov. John Hickenlooper said at the memorial."

Who is this mysterious eyewitness who remains unidentified?


" "Only Claire, being Claire, didn't see it that way. She saw a classmate armed with a gun, and Claire, she approached him, armed only with kindness and concern." "

All this time we have been told Claire was just sitting there; now they tell us she approached the gunman? Why do they keep changing the story?


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