Kentucky University Hostage Situation Ends in Tragedy

By Anastacia Mott Austin

The health center at the University of Louisville in Kentucky placed a call to police early Thursday morning, to ask for help in escorting a student to the hospital who was experiencing "mental health issues."

But moments later the Louisville Metro Police received a second call, saying that the student had brandished a firearm and was holding one of the counselors hostage.

Officers were immediately dispatched to the university, where they found student Gail Coontz, 37, holding a gun on one of the health center counselors. The officers were able to disarm Coontz, and she was taken to Kentucky’s University Hospital without further incident.

During the hostage situation, students were notified of the event through a cell phone alert, though the campus was not locked down.

Unfortunately, the story did not end there. Police officers were advised by the health center workers to check on Coontz’s two children, saying she had made threats against them during the hostage situation.

When they arrived at the home, a neighbor with a key let police into the house, where they found Coontz’s children dead. Fourteen-year-old Greg Coontz and 11-year-old Nikki Coontz had been shot to death.

Neighbors in the upscale residential area where the Coontzes lived expressed grief and shock that their quiet neighborhood would be the scene of such a terrible event.

Many told reporters that Coontz had been a good mother, very involved with her children’s lives, with girl scouts, school projects, and the like.

Said neighbor Patty Schneider to reporters, "It just all seems like it's going to be a bad dream and I'm going to wake up from it. How am I ever going to look out the front of my house again?" Schneider lives across the street from the Coontz home.

Coontz had been a student at the university since 2006, and had no prior arrests or record of trouble at the school. She had lived at the Okolona, Kentucky house for nearly 11 years, after being widowed.

"It makes me sick," said neighbor Schneider. "The kids were good kids. I have teenagers like her son. [They were] so innocent. I hope God is taking care of them." Added Schneider, "It’s just hard."