1986 Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis

Common card · No. 273240

The Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis occurred on Friday, May 16, 1986, in Cokeville, Wyoming, United States, when former town marshal David Young, 43, and his wife Doris Young, 47, took 154 hostages – 136 children and 18 adults – at Cokeville Elementary School. Transporting ten firearms and an improvised gasoline bomb, the couple entered the school and corralled the students and faculty into a single classroom to hold them for ransom. With the bomb trigger tied to his wrist, David threatened the group that he might detonate the device at any time. After a two-and-a-half hour standoff, David became increasingly agitated and decided to leave the room, transferring the trigger string to his wife Doris' wrist. Eventually Doris inadvertently lifted her arm and the bomb went off prematurely. Returning to the scene, David fatally shot his wife, non-fatally shot a teacher, then committed suicide. All the hostages survived, though 79 were later hospitalized with burns and injuries, the...

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