The school was the scene of a shooting on Friday... (Associated Press) 
 
 Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson holds a picture of Claire Davis the 17-year-old student that was shot during a briefing Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013, at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo. Davis... (Associated Press) 
 
 Sean Sweeney, a runner who lives near Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., pauses to say a prayer for the victims and the gunman of a shooting at the school during his early morning run on Saturday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 The front door at the Highlands Ranch, Colo., home of the 18-year-old shooting suspect Karl Halverson Pierson is covered with plywood on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013, after the police searched the home. Students from the school were... (Associated Press) 
 
 Gov. John Hickenlooper also credited security procedures adopted after the 1999 massacre at nearby Columbine High School for helping put a quick end to the Arapahoe High School shooting by Karl Pierson, an 18-year-old student who shot Claire Davis at point-blank range before killing himself. "We appreciate your continued good thoughts and prayers, and will provide updates as her condition improves." She is stable, but is in a coma," they said in a statement released through Littleton Adventist Hospital. Davis remained in critical condition Sunday evening, according to a statement from her family, who praised first responders and asked the community to continue thinking of and praying for the 17-year-old. "The first responders got Claire to the right place, at the right time, and the doctors and hospital staff are doing a wonderful job taking care of her. About 500 classmates held a candlelight vigil Saturday for Davis, who was sitting with a friend near the school library when she was shot in the head. Claire Davis (Provided by Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office) 
 
 The senior was shot point-blank in the head Friday after she found herself in the path of Karl Pierson, who had fired several random rounds in the hallway before he shot Davis. Debate team captain Joe Redmond said Pierson had grown angrier and angrier in recent weeks, and the target of his ire was debate coach and school librarian Tracy Murphy. Meanwhile, Arapahoe students are praying for Claire, who was described as outgoing, athletic and an excellent student. Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Claire was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and that the motive for the shooting was retaliation against a staff member. "I feel like it's going to make us a stronger senior class and school as a whole," Chris Davis, an Arapahoe senior who helped organize the fundraising effort. He managed to ignite a Molotov cocktail inside the school library before he killed himself as a fast-acting school security officer, a deputy sheriff, closed in, Robinson said. John Hickenlooper have credited the swift response by a deputy sheriff working as the school's resource officer during the shooting. Schonfeld traveled to Colorado to work with students after the 2006 shooting at Platte Canyon High School, during which 16-year-old Emily Keyes was killed, and the shootings at the Aurora movie theater, where a gunman killed 12 people and injured 70 others in July 2012. On Sunday, students worked to comfort each other, including Davis. "This could have been much, much worse," Hickenlooper told CBS's "Face the Nation." Friday's shooting, he said, "defies any explanation, and you know we are searching for some pattern." Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
– The 17-year-old girl shot in the head in Friday's Colorado school shooting is in a coma and fighting for her life, her family says. Claire Davis "remains in critical condition. She is stable, but is in a coma," the family said in a statement. "The first responders got Claire to the right place, at the right time, and the doctors and hospital staff are doing a wonderful job taking care of her." The county sheriff says Claire was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when gunman Karl Pierson walked into Arapahoe High School seeking to attack the debate coach who benched him, reports NBC. Police don't believe Pierson even knew Claire. Investigators are still trying to determine what went on between the debate coach and Pierson, who took his own life seconds after shooting Claire, the Denver Post reports. Classes at the high school, where more than a thousand people gathered for a vigil yesterday, have been cancelled today. Friends and family members describe her as an outgoing, athletic girl who loved horses. "She was just a very sweet girl. She's really smart," a classmate tells CNN. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who has asked the nation to pray for Claire, credits security measures put in place after the nearby Columbine High School shooting in 1999 with preventing the shooting from having been much worse, reports the AP.