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Colorado school, community mourn 'great kid'

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BAILEY, Colorado (CNN) -- Classmates on Thursday remembered 16-year-old Colorado school shooting victim Emily Keyes as a "sweet person" who "has never done anything to anybody to deserve this," according to local media reports.

A gunman held Platte Canyon High School students hostage in a classroom Wednesday before fatally shooting Keyes in the head and then killing himself as a SWAT team stormed in after a three-hour standoff.

He apparently had used Keyes as a human shield and shot her when she tried to escape, said Joe Morales, executive director of Colorado's Department of Public Safety.

She was pronounced dead at a Denver hospital.

Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener on Thursday identified the gunman as Duane Morrison, 53. He had an arrest record in neighboring Jefferson County and was wanted on a fugitive-from-justice warrant.

Authorities said the motive for Morrison's acts remained unclear. The sheriff said that Morrison "did traumatize and assault our children," adding the attack "was of a sexual nature." (Watch the sheriff describe what's known about Morrison -- 3:06 )

In the hours before she was shot, Keyes tapped out one last text message to her family: "I Love U Guys."

Louis Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Keyes family, asked members of the community for "random acts of kindness," The Associated Press reported.

"In memory of Emily, we would like everyone to go out and do random acts of kindness, random acts of love to your friends or your neighbors or your fellow students because there is no way to make sense of this," said Gonzalez, according to AP. "It's what Emily would have wanted."

Crisis counselors were available for students and parents, said Bailey schools superintendent Jim Walpole.

"We are a community in mourning," Walpole told AP. "Our thoughts, our prayers are with our students, staff and their families. Especially the family of the student we lost."

A yearbook photo showed Keyes as a smiling volleyball player who was on the school speech and debate team, AP reported.

"She was a very sweet person," sophomore Jessy Badaracco told the Denver Post.

Another yearbook photo showed her working to finish the first publication of the school newspaper, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

The paper said Keyes was known for having "no shortage of 'please' and 'thank yous' " at the Cutthroat Cafe, where she waited tables. The cafe is in Bailey, a small mountain town about 40 miles southwest of Denver.

"She was a great kid," the paper quoted the cafe's owner, Chip Thomas, as saying. He said she worked there three or four days a week when not busy with volleyball or speech and debate.

Shawn Swigert said a world history teacher was so impressed by a paper Keyes had submitted that it was read to his class of sophomores Wednesday morning, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

The 15-year-old recalled that the teacher had wanted the underclassmen to hear an example of the kind of work she expected of them, the paper said.

Keyes was in English class when the gunman burst in, according to The Denver Post.

Classmate Jessica Leedom, 16, described Keyes as being a quiet girl outside the speech team who liked to hang out with her twin brother, Casey, and play video games, the paper said.

"She has never done anything to anybody to deserve this," The Post quoted the classmate as saying. "She is a beautiful girl."

Neighbor David Bauer said Keyes' mother told him her daughter had died, according to the paper.

"She had a lot of friends at school," the Post quoted him as saying. "I'm sure it's going to have a big impact."

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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