But in their testimonials — spoken during a memorial service at Angel Funeral Home on South First Street — friends and family offered few clues to what prompted Tooley to fire several rounds near the southwest edge of campus Tuesday before fleeing police and shooting himself in a library. Nobody else was injured.
A deacon with the Catholic Diocese of Austin presided over the service and read statements from Tooley's family and friends, who recalled the math major as a highly intelligent and helpful classmate.
One of Tooley's former elementary school teachers described him as passionate and smart, a student whose work the teacher still shares with current students. The teacher, who did not give his name, said Tooley had dedicated parents who tried to ensure that their son had diverse experiences outside the classroom, including by registering him for soccer.
Tooley's cousin said he probably was the person closest to Tooley, whom he recalled as brilliant and sometimes hardheaded, someone who was always willing to debate a variety of subjects. The cousin said he and Tooley spoke once about what happens to a person after death. He did not reveal Tooley's thoughts on the subject.
The cousin did not introduce himself. He was the same person who, identifying himself only as Marcus, gave a statement to the media last week that said Tooley had revealed no signs that foreshadowed violence.
"If he was depressed, you would never know it because he never usually expressed his emotions," the statement said.
University of Texas Police Chief Robert Dahlstrom said last week that investigators had not completed their investigation but said they had not discovered any red flags that would have signaled that Tooley was troubled.
Well-liked but quiet
About 8 a.m. Tuesday, witnesses saw a man, later confirmed to be Tooley, wearing a shirt and tie and a ski mask and carrying the rifle.
Tooley ran east on 21st Street near Guadalupe Street. He fired multiple rounds, sending students scattering, but did not appear intent on shooting anyone, witnesses said.
Police said they pursued him to the Perry-Castañeda Library, where Tooley shot himself on the sixth floor.
Sirens blared, and loudspeakers urged students to seek shelter. Law enforcement officers from various nearby jurisdictions patrolled the campus with weapons drawn, searching for a possible second gunman. Austin SWAT officers arrived with an armored vehicle. Authorities ultimately determined that Tooley acted alone, and the all-clear came about noon.
Since the shooting, few people who knew Tooley well have spoken publicly about him. Most who have use simple descriptions — quiet, funny, smart and helpful.
John Walz said he first met Tooley in band class at Covington Middle School in Southwest Austin. Tooley was a percussionist and later part of a recognized wind ensemble.
Walz said Tooley once devised a coded language so the two could pass secret notes in history class.
Tooley later attended Crockett High School, where he graduated seventh in the class of 2009.
During lunch after some macroeconomics classes, Tooley would successfully teach concepts, such as economic growth, that the teacher could not, Walz said.
"He'd give us a real-life example that we wouldn't even think of," he said.
Walz said Tooley was well-liked at Crockett and did nothing that indicated he would be capable of Tuesday's violent outburst.
"If you wanted to talk to him, you always had to start the conversation," Walz said. "But when you did, he would leave you blown away by what he had to say."
Besides with his senior picture, Tooley's name appears one other time in the 2009 Crockett yearbook. A section that notes achievements says Tooley passed four advanced placement tests.
"I would have passed all five if it wasn't for television," said a quip attributed to Tooley.
An interest in guns
He lived with his parents, Dennis Tooley, a veterinarian, and Idalia Tooley, who runs a day care. After the shooting, police searched their house on Western Drive, near William Cannon Drive and Brodie Lane.
Neighbors said the family was quiet and said they rarely saw Colton Tooley outside of the house.
George Dankworth, who lives at the end of the cul-de-sac, said he had seen Tooley's father cleaning shotguns in the garage but had never seen an AK-47 at the house.
UT's Dahlstrom said police know where Tooley got the gun but said that information won't be released to the public until the investigation is complete. He said he could not estimate when that would be.
The UT student newspaper, The Daily Texan, has reported that its staffers have obtained some of Tooley's class assignments, including one proposal to write about the gun-control debate.
"I've grown up in a household where my mother is absolutely appalled by guns and my dad grew up with them out in rural Oklahoma and sees them as ... part of life," the Texan quoted Tooley as saying . "I have also been to a few gun shows and learned what the people behind the counters, selling AR-15's, Kalashnikovs, Berettas, etc. have to say on the issue, both by talking to them and by reading their T-shirts."
Tooley said he was interested in the subject after the mass shootings by students at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School in Colorado.
The Texan reported that in another assignment, Tooley wrote that he was "socially detached."
"All I know is that for the next four years, I expect to make the PCL (Perry-Castañeda Library) my home for its air conditioning, silence, and ample privacy on the upper floors," the Texan quoted him as saying.
Other media reports about Tooley's assignments quote him as saying he had not spent much time discovering the city where he has lived since shortly after his birth, never signed up for an account on the social networking site Facebook and used his cell phone simply to check the time.
If Tooley had any close friends from UT, they have not made themselves known in online tributes or to members of the media.
Tooley's body was cremated before the funeral service Sunday. Among the more than 125 people at the service, about a dozen appeared to be around Tooley's age
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