Campus Alert Archive
Casper

A Father's Last Stand: Mortally Wounded Professor Fights His Son So Students Can Escape

WYstabbingemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

Chris Krumm, 25, of Vernon, Connecticut, fatally stabbed his father's girlfriend Heidi Arnold at their Casper home, then drove to Casper College where he shot his father, computer science instructor Jim Krumm, in the head with a compound hunting bow and then stabbed him inside an active class. The elder Krumm wrestled with his son while mortally wounded, giving students time to flee. Chris Krumm then stabbed himself to death. Casper College issued a campus-wide lockdown alert within two minutes.

Alerts
5
Response
2 min
Killed
2
Injured
0
Institution
Casper College
Community College · WY
~3,500 studentsCC Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

5 messages in sequence · 3 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction132 chars
CASPER COLLEGE ALERT: Campus emergency. Lockdown in effect. Stay indoors, lock doors, stay away from windows. Do not come to campus.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed from media reports describing the alert content. Casper College confirmed the alert went out within two minutes.
The speed of the alert was notable for a community college; many such institutions in 2012 had slower response times.
The message did not specify the nature of the incident, following the common 2012 practice of issuing lockdown orders before confirming details.
UPDATEsocial-media
Verified verbatimCasper College Facebook post archived in Campus Safety Magazine's coverage of the November 30, 2012 incident response95 chars
If you are on campus, please lock your classroom/office doors and wait for further instruction.
Posted on Casper College's Facebook page during the active lockdown — a parallel social-media channel alongside the SMS/email CC Alert and the campus Twitter account
The 'classroom/office doors' wording reflects the daytime academic context: students and faculty were instructed to shelter where they already were, not to evacuate
Casper College's coordinated use of three social channels (CC Alert text, Twitter, Facebook) within minutes of the attack was widely cited afterward as a model for community-college emergency communication
UPDATETwitter/X
Verified verbatimTwitter post archived in Twitchy's contemporaneous coverage of Casper College's social-media response83 chars
Shooting just reported at Casper Wyoming Community College – Stay away from campus!
Casper College used Twitter as a parallel channel alongside its CC Alert text/email system, an unusually early example of social-media-as-primary-emergency-channel for a US community college in 2012
The 'Casper Wyoming Community College' phrasing reflects local shorthand for Casper College and is preserved verbatim from the tweet
The single-sentence directive prioritized 'Stay away from campus' over describing the nature of the threat — typical of early-2010s community-college lockdown messaging
UPDATESMS
Approximate reconstruction141 chars
CASPER COLLEGE UPDATE: Lockdown continues. An attack has occurred in a campus building. Suspect is believed to be deceased. Remain sheltered.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed from media accounts. The update came roughly 30 minutes after the initial alert.
Noting the suspect was 'believed to be deceased' while maintaining the lockdown reflects appropriate caution.
ALL CLEARTwitter/X
Verified verbatimCasper College Twitter post archived in Twitchy's coverage of Casper College's social-media response43 chars
Police have officially lifted the lock down
The terse five-word all-clear reflects the SMS/Twitter character constraints of 2012-era community-college emergency communication
The lockdown lasted approximately two hours, ending after authorities confirmed both perpetrator and victim were deceased and no additional threats remained
Casper College was widely cited afterward in Campus Safety Magazine and the Casper Star-Tribune for its Twitter-as-emergency-channel approach
Context

Background

The November 30, 2012 attack at Casper College was unlike most campus violence incidents in both its weapons and its motive. Chris Krumm, 25, an engineer who lived in Vernon, Connecticut, had traveled roughly 2,000 miles to Casper. He first stabbed his father's girlfriend, Heidi Arnold — a 42-year-old math instructor at Casper College — to death at the home she shared with Jim Krumm. He then drove to campus with a compound hunting bow and two knives concealed under a blanket, walked into his father Jim Krumm's computer science classroom, and shot him in the head with the bow at point-blank range. Jim Krumm, though gravely wounded by the arrow, wrestled with his son and was stabbed multiple times before dying — giving the four to six students in the classroom time to escape. No students were physically harmed. Chris Krumm then stabbed himself to death. The incident was rooted in family conflict, not the kind of mass-casualty intent typically associated with campus shootings. Casper College's emergency response was notably fast: the campus-wide lockdown alert went out via text and email within approximately two minutes of the first reports. The lockdown lasted about two hours until authorities confirmed no additional threats. The case highlights how community colleges, often with limited security budgets, can still achieve rapid alert response when systems are properly configured. It also stands as a testament to Jim Krumm's courage in his final moments.
Analysis

Key Findings

Two-minute alert response time was exceptionally fast for a community college in 2012
Unusual weapons (compound hunting bow and knives) rather than firearms
Jim Krumm's decision to fight his attacker while mortally wounded allowed all students to escape unharmed
Family violence that spilled onto campus, not a mass-casualty attack on students
The lockdown lasted approximately two hours, a measured response given the attacker was already deceased
Outcome
Three dead: Heidi Arnold (stabbed at home), Jim Krumm (killed on campus by arrow and stab wounds), and the attacker Chris Krumm (self-inflicted stab wound). No students were physically injured, largely because Jim Krumm fought back despite his wounds.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Source
    Casper College murders - Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org
  2. News
    Father killed by son at Casper College in Wyoming - CNN
    cnn.com
  3. News
    Hero instructor fought son in Wyoming college bow-and-arrow murder-suicide, police say - Fox News
    foxnews.com
  4. Source
    Casper College uses Twitter to alert students and faculty to school shooting - Twitchy
    twitchy.com
Tags
stabbingbow-and-arrowcommunity-collegewyomingworkplace-violencefamily-violenceheroic-response
Added April 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion