Remembering Columbine High School shooting: Littleton, Colorado, 1999

Editors note: Though Columbine has become one of the most well known school shootings, even giving rise to the term "Pulling a Columbine," it was not intended to be a school shooting at all. What most of America saw as a school shooting was originally meant to be a mass bombing of unimaginable scale. The bombs placed in the cafeteria were enough to bring the library crumbling down on the cafeteria. Both rooms were full of students at the time. The shooters were positioned outside waiting for survivors to come running out of the building as unwitting targets. Both of their cars were wired as well. They set fire to several rooms, that were put out by bystanders or sprinklers. Thankfully, the bombs were mostly defective. This was not a school shooting it was a domestic terror attack. 

This topic has been covered at length, and links will follow if you would like to know more about it but we won't cover the standard details here. These are the details used for our research. 

"A suicidal attack planned as a grand—if badly implemented—terrorist bombing."
- USA Today

Date: April 20

Year: 1999

School: Columbine High School

Location: Littleton (A suburb of Denver)

State: Colorado

Wounded: 24

Fatalities: 13

Shots Fired: 
Dylan -
9mm rounds fired:
outside the school: 3, inside the school: 31, library: 21
(total 55)
Shotgun rounds fired:
outside the school: 2, inside the school: 4, library: 6
(total 12)
Total rounds fired: 67
Eric -
9mm rounds fired:
outside the school: 47, inside the school: 36, library: 13
(total 96)
Shotgun rounds fired:
inside the school: 4, Library: 21
(total 25)
Total rounds fired: 121
Bombs Detonated: 
48 Carbon Dioxide bombs
27 Pipe bombs
11 1.5 gallon propane bombs
7 gas or napalm bombs
2 20 pound propane bombs
Time lapsed: 7 minutes shooting
45 more minutes as they wandered the halls using explosives and firing at random. No further injuries were sustained after the initial 7 minute blast.
(11:20 assault begins - 12:05 they commit suicide)

Police response time: Police response time for the Columbine attack is complicated.
11:19 AM An explosion is reported 3 miles from Columbine, authorities respond. This is a distraction.
11:22 AM School resource officer receives call of female down and responds
11:23 AM Reports of a female down at Columbine, possibly paralyzed goes out to 911.
11:24 First deputy arrives, Deputy Neil Gardner is responding to report of female down
11:25 Gardner exchanges shots with Harris, 911 calls begin to flood in from the school and neighborhood
11:26 Gardner calls for backup "Shots in the building. I need someone in the south lot with me." (More deputies arrive)
11:27 Gardner radios for emergency assistance from officers and medical assistance
11:28 Students shelter with deputies, give description of a shooter in a black trench coat.
11:30 PM Shots reported in Columbine library, call volume becomes overwhelming and backup dispatchers are called in. Police exchange gunfire with shooters from library.
11:31 Deputy reports smoke coming from school
11:32 AM Sheriff's office begins getting calls from the media. More officers arrive as media begins to arrive on the scene.
11:36 Jefferson County sets up command center. Littleton Fire Department arrives and sets staging area up away from the school. At this time deputies receive report of third shooter on roof dressed in red, white and blue shirt. (Later identified to be an air conditioner repairman who got caught on the roof in the chaos.)
12:02 SWAT begins to approach the school
12:04 Police provide cover so paramedics can begin rescuing the first victims as gunmen fire from windows above
12:06 SWAT team enters building
12:08 Shooters commit suicide leaving behind a maltov cocktail that malfunctioned. Police believing the shooters to be alive do a room by room search, helping students escape as they went. Some of the bodies are booby trapped. It takes hours to clear the school.
3:25 PM SWAT team finally makes it to the library and confirms that the shooters are dead.
4:38 PM Doctors were brought in to find signs of life in remaining victims.
4:30 PM Columbine declared safe for emergency crews
5:30 Explosives are located in parking lots
6:15 Live bomb found in Klebold's car
10:45 PM Car bomb accidentally detonates as it is being defused, nobody is hurt
April 21 Investigation is completed and bodies are finally removed.
April 22 An unexploded propane bomb was found in the kitchen
http://acolumbinesite.com/weapon.php

How ended: Suicide as SWAT team entered school

Civilians involved: No.

Perpetrators: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

Age: 18 & 17

Family history: Nothing out of the ordinary for either shooter. Parents still married. The Harris family was aware of their sons troubles and were trying to seek help without knowing quite where to turn. The Klebold's were described as loving involved parents and Dylan seemed like a fairly normal boy of his age, though he was a bit awkward and sometimes sad, nobody noticed anything too far out of the ordinary until after the pieces were put together. Afterwards, it seemed impossible to miss. While the media often portrays them as outcasts, it doesn't seem to be the case. They have quite a few friends in their circle, but tended to opt for one another's company much of the time. Their separation from society was a choice, not a sentence. 

Red flags: As far as arrests, both boys only had once incident where they broke into a van together on their records. They completed their diversion program and the court was satisfied that they had learned their lesson. Their school records were mostly positive, good grades, no real disciplinary records, nothing of note. On the surface everything looked normal. After the shooting and subsequent investigation a completely different story began to emerge. Harris congratulated himself on fooling the judge in the theft case, and said the victim deserved to be robbed. After their arrest on the theft charges, Mrs. Harris began taking him to a therapist for his anger issues.
In reality Mr. Harris had begun keeping a journal of the troubles they had with their son in 1997 after Harris threw a rock through fellow student Brooks Brown's windshield. Dylan Klebold told the Brown's about this website, when Brown's parents were made aware of various threats Harris had made against their son in person and online they became concerned and notified law enforcement. At the time of the report they made law enforcement aware of the shooters website full of various angry rants and rages full of hate and venom directed at everyone imaginable and specifically naming Brooks Brown. Perhaps most concerning, the website also contained test results from their experiences with bomb making. Police went as far as getting a warrant, but for some reason it was never executed. Harris had written school papers in favor of Nazis and one about how to make schools safer in an era of school shootings. Both were reported to have anger issues and short fuses.

Mental illness history: Most professionals feel that Eric Harris was a psychopath who dreamed of destruction and killing as many people as possible. Harris was described as the instigator, though they acted equally in the attack. Dylan however is described as a follower with deep depression who was heavily influenced by Harris. Most professionals believe that Klebold might never have acted on his own, but Harris would have probably done something even worse given enough time. He even mentioned hijacking planes and crashing them in New York City if they escaped. 

Drug or medication use: Harris was on Luvox, but concentrations in his blood were low at the time of death indicating he was weaning off or on an intentionally low dose. This would likely have kept him out of the military, which was a one time goal. 

Inspiration: This case like no other illustrates the full immersion these killers choose prior to their sprees. They weren't just obsessed with a movie, or a book, or a single attack that came before them. They even insisted that they didn't get the idea from any of the previous shootings, and that they had been planning their own assault for 2 years without influence.

They sought their inspiration from many sources. First and foremost being the movie "Natural Born Killers," which gave them the code name for their assault, NBK. In a writing called Vaccines Harris says their ideal goal was to create as much chaos as "the L.A. riots, the Oklahoma bombing, WWII, Vietnam, Duke and Doom all together. It is clear they were attracted to violent media in any form they could find it.

Eric Harris repeatedly referred to hardcore band KMFDM, quoting them on his website and in yearbook signatures. Specifically songs like "Son of a gun," "Stray Bullet," "Power"," and "Anarchy."  He also liked to quote the German hardcore band Rammstein, especially "Weisses Fleisch," a song about a school shooting. While Kelbold quoted the band Nine Inch Nails, in his journal he referenced "Something I Can Never Have," "The Downward Spiral," and "Hurt." They both mentioned liking Marilyn Manson as well, though some have disputed this.

Harris professed admiration for Adolph Hitler, cult leader Charles Manson, Charles Darwin, Thomas Hobbes, Nietzsche and even Joe Arpaio. While it is uncertain if he actually studied teachings of those he admired, but he did share many of the same views. Harris saw himself as above other people, above the law, above the world, and even above god.

As his plans took shape, Harris began to dream of not just attacking his school, but Denver, or New York City, or even the world if he could have found a way.

Harris used violent media and inspirations to create a world around himself that reinforced his own twisted view. He chose movies to support this view, he chose heroes that confirmed it, he listened to music that fed it, and he lost himself in video games where he was in total control of it all.
https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/harris_influences_ideology_1.3.pdf


Possible motive: With two shooters, there seem to be three motives. Each with their individual motives, and their shared common goal.  The day Eric Harris obtained his first firearm he wrote, “I am fucking armed. I feel more confident, stronger, more God-like.” While Klebold expressed a strong desire to inflict pain on a world that had hurt him, he often showed an even stronger desire to kill himself. His journals show little hope for a future, he doesn't seem to think love is possible for him, or that he could ever fit into the world around him.

Together, they spent two years planning their assault. They gathered weapons and materials, assembled and tested bombs. They planned every detail of the attack down to what they would wear. Where one of them alone might not have been able to pull off the attack, the two of them fed one anothers anger and hatred. Their intention was not to pull off a school shooting, and it wasn't to avenge bullying but to commit the largest terrorist attack on a school in modern history.

Weapons:
Intratec TEC-DC9
Hi-Point 995 Carbine
Savage 67H pump-action sawed-off shotgun
Stevens 311D double barreled sawed-off shotgun
99 explosives
4 knives

Weapons obtained: Illegal. Rifles obtained through straw purchase, semi-automatics purchased illegally from a friend. 

Training: They frequently went target practicing together and with friends. Harris mentioned the Anarchist Cookbook when discussing bomb making, but it is unclear whether he had a copy or just has access to one. 

Aftermath: After Columbine there was nothing but questions. A zero tolerance policy was put into effect across the nation for those who brought guns or drugs to school, resulting in 40 children being suspended for having alka-seltzer. Guns weren't welcome in schools anymore, which sounded logical until kids were being kicked out of school because their action figure came with a tiny plastic gun.

Though it turned out to be mostly rumor, at first much of the focus was on the image of the Columbine assailants being gothic outcasts who were bullied to a breaking point, some schools chose to focus on anti-bullying programs while others implemented dress codes and suspended those who dyed their hair or dressed in scary clothes.

As time passed our schools started to look more like prisons. Children were required to use see through backpacks and school doors remained locked, visitors required security escorts to drop off their child's lunches. No matter what they did, school shootings continued to happen and death tolls continued to rise. Nine of the deadliest attacks in American history have happened since Columbine.

Nearly 20 years later, the Columbine attack has gone from one of the deadliest mass shootings in America's history to the 13th.

The U.S. Secret Service and the CDC among other agencies were tasked with studying the roots of this wave of violence and finding ways to stop it. They found no useful profile for a mass shooter, they came from such varied backgrounds, had different motivations, and different methods. What may have stopped one, would not stop the next.

No matter which study it is, they all point to one conclusion. If we mean to stop school shootings we need to think beyond more security, or fewer guns. We need to catch them and help them before they become dedicated to killing in the first place.

Brooks Brown was right, there are no easy answers.

Resulting actions: The most prominent change brought by Columbine is how low enforcement reacts to active shooters. At the time protocol was to set up a command, surround the building and try to contain the damage. It may be the most effective solution in a standard hostage situation, but at Columbine it cost lives. Teacher Dave Sanders bled to death while waiting for assistance, which didn't come for hours.

Now, police use the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment tactic. In mass shootings, the majority of the casualties come in the first few minutes of first shot fired and most are over within 15 minutes. There is no time to waste, officers must move towards the shooter as quickly as possible and neutralize the threat in order to save as many lives as they can.

They now have frequent crisis training for emergency personnel.  

The Shooting: Columbine was not the first school shooting, but it changed the script for all future shootings. Nearly 2/3 of subsequent shooters make some reference to Columbine.

Much has been written about this attack, and we will leave it at that. There are 3 sites I recommend for researching the massacre at Columbine High School. In the end, Harris and Klebold killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and injured

Dave Cullen's Research Site for his book Columbine: The Columbine Guide
https://www.columbine-guide.com/columbine-harris-school-shooters

Peter Langman, Ph.D Eric Harris/Columbine Resources
https://schoolshooters.info/eric-harris

A Columbine Site: The Oldest Columbine Site
http://www.acolumbinesite.com/

Conspiracy Theories: Columbine has spawned countless conspiracy theories, and gives us a very good example of how misinformation can get out of control. Over 2000 people were interviewed regarding the columbine shooting, and stories vary from source to source. The situation was perfect for those looking to prove a point be that political, religious, or otherwise.

Peter Langman Ph.D. has done an excellent job of addressing some of the most pressing rumors, whether or not they like Marilyn Manson, whether or not they were members of the trench coat mafia, and were they the bullied or the bullies?
https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/klebold_short_story.pdf