Casper, Wyo. » A Wyoming community college instructor killed in a grisly classroom murder-suicide was hailed as a hero Saturday, with police saying he gave his students time to flee by distracting and fighting off his son after the younger man barged into his computer science class and shot him in the head with a high-powered bow and arrow.
The arrow severely wounded James Krumm, 56, but he managed to wrestle with son Christopher Krumm, 25, of Vernon, Conn., while students escaped the Casper College classroom Friday.
Christopher Krumm had just stabbed to death his father’s live-in girlfriend at the couple’s home two miles away.
When police arrived at the classroom after the bow-and-arrow attack, they found Christopher Krumm bleeding from self-inflicted knife wounds and taking his last breaths.
James Krumm was dead, Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said.
"I can tell you the courage that was demonstrated by Mr. Krumm was absolutely without equal," he said, adding that the instructor’s actions could offer some measure of comfort to those affected by the killings.
Walsh said police still were trying to figure out what motivated Christopher Krumm to attack his father and girlfriend, 42-year-old Heidi Arnold, a math instructor at the college. Arnold died of multiple stab wounds.
After shooting his father with the arrow, Christopher Krumm stabbed himself, then fatally stabbed his father in the chest in a struggle in the classroom, Walsh said.
Police began getting reports about the attack on Arnold soon after they responded by the dozen to the campus attack. Authorities locked down the campus for two hours while they scoured the grounds for any other attackers. They were reassured that Christopher Krumm acted alone.
He had smuggled the compound bow — a type much more powerful and effective for hunting than a simple, wooden bow — onto campus beneath a blanket, Walsh said.
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He said Christopher Krumm also had two knives with him, and the knife used was "very large."
Arnold’s body was found in the gutter of her street, and evidence suggested much of the attack occurred outside the home, Walsh said.
Heather Meier, who lives across the street, said she came home from work Friday afternoon after picking up her 7-year-old daughter from school, and the two saw Arnold’s body still lying in the street.
"As soon as we got home, we just shut the curtains," she said. "You know, tried to just watch some TV, have some snacks, mind our own business."
Meier, who has lived in the neighborhood for two years, said she met Arnold and James Krumm only once a few months ago and described the couple as very private.
"They were kind of different. Really quiet. Nothing really to say to anybody," Meier said Saturday. Outside her home, crime tape cordoned off Krumm and Arnold’s faded blue and yellow home and part of the street.
Chris Unruh, 18, was a student in one of Arnold’s pre-calculus classes this fall. He said she was a kind instructor who was excited about recently getting two dogs.
"The whole classroom just really brightened up when she told everybody," Unruh said. "She was a really, really nice person. She cared about her students. She wanted all of them to succeed."
Christopher Krumm, who had no significant history of encounters with police, had recently driven to Casper from Connecticut and had been staying at a local hotel.
Police were uncertain what went awry in his relationship with his father.
"It’s difficult to say. I don’t think it was very close," Walsh said.
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