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Despite his prison record, Larry Gordon, 44, was a regular volunteer at South Elementary School in Watervliet, Mich., where his daughter attended classes.(Photo: WZZM-TV, Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Mich.)
WATERVLIET, Mich.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— A western Michigan man accused of killing two Berrien County court officers in an escape attempt was a regular volunteer at his daughter's elementary school despite an extensive criminal record that included two stints in federal prison.
Gordon, who was shot to death in the July 11 escape attempt in St. Joseph, Mich., was being held on a multitude of charges alleging that he had held a 17-year-old girl captive in a shed where he fed her meth and raped her.
"It's my understanding that he attended classroom parties,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Superintendent Kevin Schooley said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Most recently, Gordon had volunteered for Halloween and Valentine's Day parties.
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Watervliet Public Schools officials confirmed that Gordon was a classroom volunteer at South Elementary here for more than a year, before his April arrest on kidnapping, rape and other charges.
"We do background checks. Unfortunately, the background check I saw I didn't see any violent crimes," Superintendent Kevin Schooley said.
Larry Gordon died July 11, 2016, after shooting four people, including two fatally, outside the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph, Mich.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Michigan Department of Corrections)
Gordon, 44, had been in and out of trouble for the past two decades, including two federal convictions for crimes involving guns and pipe bombs, federal and state court records show:
•<span style="color: Red;">*</span>In 1992, Gordon was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for possessing pipe bombs.
•<span style="color: Red;">*</span>In 1998, he went to state prison, sentenced to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>more than four years for fleeing police.
•<span style="color: Red;">*</span>In 2001, he would end up back in federal prison, that time serving 51 months for firearms charges.
•<span style="color: Red;">*</span>In 2013, he landed back in the criminal-justice system, receiving probation for stealing fireworks from a stand, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
The school never checked Gordon's record for federal crimes. Principal Carole Fetke said that's because employees get fingerprinted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but not volunteers.
School officials did a background check for Gordon once in fall 2014 and then again in September 2015, she said.
Contributing: Steven Pepple, Detroit Free Press
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