Columbine High School massacre

The Columbine High School Massacre occurred on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Jefferson County near Littleton, Colorado, United States. Two teenaged students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, executed a planned shooting rampage killing 12 other students and a teacher before committing suicide. It is considered to be the worst school shooting in U.S. history.

Chronology of events

All times in local time (MST).

1997: Harris web site visited by investigator Guerra

Jefferson County Sheriff Office investigator Michael Guerra reads Eric Harris' website. The site, which referred to "ground zero" and boasted that Harris and Klebold had built pipe bombs, was disturbing enough for Guerra to write a draft affidavit for a search warrant. However the affidavit is never filed.

April 20, 1999: the killings

16 minutes of terror

Some of the massacre was captured on the high school's security cameras.

Harris and Klebold had already planted two bombs in the cafeteria which were expected to explode at 11:00am, a time they calculated was when the most students would be in the cafeteria--900 Columbine students were on their lunch break. These two bombs were the largest at twenty pounds each, constructed of pipe bombs surrounded by propane-filled fuel cylinders. The pair had previously planted other bombs around the campus expecting them to explode too; most of them never went off, however. They brought the bombs to school in backpacks and bomb-cases strapped to their bodies. Harris and Klebold were wearing trench coats so that their fellow students would not know that guns and bombs were being smuggled into the school.

Harris and Klebold fired their first shots about 11:19 in the parking lot after running there from the soccer field. By 11:25 the pair, who had already fatally shot Rachel Scott, ran into the cafeteria while shooting students. They also shot at one of the bombs which they had planted in an attempt to detonate it, but to no avail. If those two cafeteria bombs had exploded, then many of the four hundred and forty-eight students in the cafeteria would have most likely been killed. Some students hid in closets, bathrooms, and offices, or under heavy desks and chairs; others fled the building to the Robert F. Clement Park. Some of the students called for help on cell phones while hiding behind a heavy door.

The first 9-1-1 call relating to the incident was made at 11:25. A custodian reported hearing gunfire and explosions at the school. The custodian also reported seeing a shooter on the roof who was later revealed to be an innocent repairman hiding from the shooting.

At 11:28, deputy Neil Gardner of Jefferson County exchanged gunfire with Harris and Klebold near a building entrance. He radioed for help at 11:29. At 11:30, other Jefferson County deputies arrived on the scene. They called other agencies for help because they heard explosions and gunshots. The shooters moved upstairs, firing at students in classrooms.

Harris and Klebold then moved to the school's library, killing ten students and injuring several more. When it was clear that they were not going to escape the building the two committed suicide, Harris by firing a shotgun placed in his mouth and Klebold with a handgun. Some theorize that Harris killed Klebold before killing himself because Klebold was left handed but was shot in the right temple. Harris had injured his last victim at 11:31 a.m; both Harris and Klebold were confirmed dead by 12:30 pm.

The shooting stops

By noon, SWAT teams found explosive devices around the school, and ambulances started taking the wounded to local hospitals. Parents gathered at Leawood Elementary School. The call for additional ammunition to police officers in case of a shootout came at 12:20. However, the killers had supposedly stopped shooting prior to 12:00 pm.

The SWAT teams started checking every room in the high school in great detail by 12:30. Even desks and backpacks were examined. Authorities reported pipe bombs being found by 1:00 pm.

SWAT teams started to free hidden students by 2:30. The students and teachers were taken away, questioned, and were offered medical care in small holding areas. Officers found bodies in the library by 3:30.

By 4:00 the sheriff made an initial estimate of 25 dead students and teachers; his estimate was 10 over the true count. Police officers were searching the bodies of Harris and Klebold in the library. At 4:30 the school was declared safe, yet at 5:30 additional officers were called in as more explosives were found in the parking lot. At 6:15 pm, officials found a bomb in a car in the parking lot, so the sheriff marked the entire school as a crime scene with yards of yellow tape. All of the dead were still inside the school at the time. At 10:45 pm, one of the homemade bombs detonated while police tried to defuse it.

April 21: bomb squad combs the school, first press conference held

The next day, on April 21, bomb squads combed the high school looking for bombs. At 08:30 am, the official death toll of fifteen was released. The bomb squad declared the building safe for officials to enter. By 11:30, a spokesman of the sheriff said, "The investigation is under way." Thirteen of the bodies were still inside the high school as investigators photographed the building.

By 2:30 pm, a press conference was held by Jefferson County District Attorney David Thomas and Sheriff John Stone, saying that they suspected that other children helped plan the shooting. Formal identifications of the dead had not taken place yet, but families of the children thought to have to been killed were notified that this probably happened. Throughout the late afternoon and early evening, the rest of the bodies were gradually removed out of the school and taken to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office to be identified and autopsied. By 5:00 pm, the identities of those dead started to be known.

April 30: 2nd press conference held; officials decide to not mention Guerra affidavit

A few days after the shooting, high-ranking members of Jefferson County and the Jefferson County Sheriff Office meet together to decide if they should reveal that investigator Guerra knew of the Harris website two years prior to the massacre. The decide to not disclose this information at a press conference held April 30th, nor do they mention it in any other way. Over the next two years the original Guerra documents are lost, perhaps as a result of the standard document-destruction policies of the sheriff's office.

September 2001: Guerra affidavit becomes publically known

The existence of the Guerra affidavit becomes known to the general public and a series of grand jury investigations are launched into the coverup activities of the Jefferson County officials. The final grand jury investigation is released in September 2004.[1][2]

Aftershock and the search for reasons

Analysis of journals and videos left behind by Harris and Klebold revealed that the pair had developed an elaborate, sometimes fantastic plan for not only the school shooting, but also a massacre in the neighborhood and, if they were unable to escape from the United States, a planned hijacking of an airplane which they would then crash into New York City.

In the aftermath of the shootings, there was a great deal of debate about what "provoked" the killers and whether anything could have been done to prevent the crime. The reality of social cliques in high schools was a frequent topic of discussion. Many argued that the pair's isolation from the rest of their classmates prompted feelings of helplessness, insecurity and depression, as well as a strong desire for attention. Some schools also began programs to expose and stop school bullying, which many charged had fueled anger and resentment within Harris and Klebold.

In the weeks following the shootings, media reports about the two killers portrayed them as outcast "nerds" who were unpopular and ostracized by much of the school's population; later such characterizations were revised as both Harris and Klebold were documented to have both a close circle of friends and a wider informal social group. It was also reported that anti-gay epithets were frequently directed at them, although their actual sexual orientation was unknown; both were known to have had girlfriends though. Harris and Klebold were peripheral members of a club called the "Trenchcoat Mafia" in which they wore heavy black trench coats. By the time of the shootings, most of the major members of the group had already either graduated or dropped out of Columbine.

Some analysts noted that the date of the shooting coincided with Adolf Hitler's 110th birth anniversary, and was one day after the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, though it was not known whether knowledge of either of these dates influenced Harris and Klebold.

Harris and Klebold were fans of violent video games such as "DOOM" (in fact, Harris often created levels for the game; these were widely distributed, and can still occasionally be found on the Internet as the Harris levels. Rumors that the layout of these levels resembled that of Columbine High School circulated but have been debunked as documented on the Snopes urban legends website [3]). Some analysts argued that part of the killers' problem may have been a result of their constant exposure to violent imagery in such video games, as well as music, and movies, theorizing that their obsession with these forms of media may have led them to have trouble telling the difference between reality and fantasy.

It's been publicly revealed that Harris had been prescribed and was taking Luvox (Fluvoxamine maleate), an SSRI antidepressant, at the time of the shooting spree. Some analysts have argued that this medication may have contributed to Harris' actions, as an alleged side-effect of these drugs is a loss of empathy for other human beings, and a correlation is claimed between "school shooters" whose medical history has been made public and use of or recent discontinuation of such medications. Other researchers have pointed out that such claims are not based upon scientific evidence.

Long-term impact

In response to concerns over the causes of Columbine and other school massacres, many schools later instituted new anti-bully policies as well as so-called "zero tolerance" approaches to weapons and threatening behavior. Despite the horrific nature of the Columbine incident, some experts in social science feel these measures were an overreaction.

In the months following the shooting, some Christians were captivated by reports of Cassie Bernall, who, when asked "Do you believe in God?" by one of the shooters, responded "Yes" before being shot and killed. Alternate accounts surfaced soon thereafter, attributing the remark to victim Rachel Scott. Both Bernall and Scott were regarded as Christian "martyrs" by many. Official investigation attributed the statement to survivor Valeen Schnurr.

Shooters

Eric David Harris, 18
Dylan Bennett Klebold, 17

Victims

As well as the two deceased shooters, there were 13 fatalities and 23 injured.

Deceased

Cassie Bernall, 17
Steven Curnow, 14
Corey DePooter, 17
Kelly Fleming, 16
Matthew Kechter, 16
Daniel Mauser, 15
Daniel Rohrbough, 15
Dave Sanders, 47 (Teacher)
Rachel Scott, 17
Isaiah Shoels, 18
John Tomlin, 16
Lauren Townsend, 18
Kyle Velasquez, 16

Injured

Brian Anderson, 17
Richard Castaldo, 17
Jennifer Doyle, 17
Stephen Eubanks, 17
Nicholas Foss, 18
Sean Graves, 15
Makai Hall, 19
Anne Hochhalter, 17
Patrick Ireland, 17
Joyce Jankowski, 45
Michael Johnson, 15
Mark Kintgen, 17
Lance Kirklin, 16
Lisa Kreutz, 18
Adam Kryler, 16
Stephanie Munson, 17
Patricia Nielsen, 35
Nicole Nowlen, 16
Jeanna Park, 18
Kasey Ruegsegger, 17
Valeen Schnurr, 18.
Danny Steepleton, 17
Mark Taylor, 16

Cultural impact

The massacre was one of the subjects of the controversial 2001 Michael Moore documentary film Bowling for Columbine, about the culture of violence in the US.

The Columbine shooting spree also served as the inspiration for the fictional 2003 Gus Van Sant film, Elephant.

In addition, aspects of the Columbine disaster were the basis of Douglas Coupland's 2003 book Hey Nostradamus!

Firearms

Before the shootings, Harris and Klebold illegally acquired and modified a TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun, a rifle, two sawed-off shotguns, and as many as 97 improvised explosive devices of various designs and sizes. Even before the massacre began, the two perpetrators committed numerous felony violations of state and federal law, including the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act of 1968.

All four guns were illegally obtained by straw purchases. Robyn Anderson bought the rifle and two shotguns for Harris and Klebold, but was never charged for her violations of federal gun laws. Mark Manes and Philip Duran were found guilty of supplying the handgun to the two youths and received prison terms.

External links