The Columbine High School Shooting on April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, occurred when perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a murderous spree, killing 13 people and injuring over 20 others before killing themselves. At that time, the Columbine massacre was the worst school shooting in United States history and provoked a widespread debate on school safety and gun control. Additionally, a major investigation was conducted to find out what the gunmen’s motives were for carrying out their killing spree.
Day of the Columbine Mass Murders
Since Columbine, the U.S. has seen multiple tragedies of school shootings, sparking debate on gun control and school safety. Some examples are the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; the Wisconsin Abundant Life Christian school shooting; and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting in Parkland, Florida.
At around 11:19 a.m., Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, dressed in black trench coats, started shooting fellow students outside the school located in Littleton, Colorado. Harris and Klebold then went inside the school, where they murdered a majority of their victims in the library.
In the library, the two teens killed 12 students and one teacher. In addition to the deaths, they wounded more than 20 others and turned the gun on themselves shortly after noon. According to investigators, Harris and Klebold arrived at Columbine in separate cars around 11:10 a.m. on the day of the massacre. They then entered the cafeteria and placed two duffel bags, each with a 20-pound propane bomb.
Both bombs were set to explode at 11:17 a.m., and the killers went back to their vehicles for the bombs to explode. The bombs did not detonate, so Harris and Klebold started their killing spree. Had the bombs gone off like the killers intended, the death toll would have been much higher. The news of that terrible day stunned the country, and there was a lot of criticism of the police response. Even though the shooting ended around noon, the police did not enter the school for some time, believing that there was continuing danger when some victims bled to death.
The Columbine shooting set off massive debates on how to stop gun violence in schools. There was an initial report that one of the victims, Cassie Bernall, was targeted because of her Christian faith. It was reported that she was asked by one of the gunmen if she believed in God. When Bernall said, “Yes,” allegedly, she was shot and killed. Later, her parents wrote a book titled She Said Yes in honor of their daughter. Investigations in the aftermath of the shooting determined that Harris and Klebold chose their victims randomly.
Columbine Shooting Investigation
The killers’ original mass murder plan was to bomb the school and kill any potential survivors. Speculations were made that the two teens were part of a social outcast group called the Trenchcoat Mafia. It was also speculated that the shooter’s motives were retaliation for bullying. Many blamed violent video games for the shooting, and the teens did play violent games and were fans of Natural Born Killers. Investigators also discovered that Harris and Klebold had been planning the attack for a year to bomb the school, similar to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.
Just before the shooting, Brooks Brown, an on-again-off-again friend of Eric, encountered Eric parked far from the designated smoking area at the school. As Brown confronted him for missing a philosophy exam, Eric said, “It doesn’t matter anymore. Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home.” Brown then left Columbine, debating whether or not to skip the next period. Brown’s relationship with Harris was a complicated one. Within the last year before the shooting, Harris had vandalized the Browns’ house, posted death threats against him online, and bragged about having pipe bombs.
When Brown was a block away from the school, he heard noises. At first, he thought it was just a senior prank. But the sounds became faster and more intense. Brown recognized it was gunfire, and he started running and eventually found a telephone. Klebold was known for being shy and intelligent. He and Brown attended the Colorado CHIPS (Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students) program starting from the third grade. Klebold stayed in the program until he aged out in the sixth grade, and Brown left due to the challenging environment and lack of teacher support.
Klebold kept his feelings inside, leading to uncontrollable rages at times. Harris was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was the son of an Air Force pilot. He spent much of his childhood moving pretty frequently. Harris would pretend to be a heroic marine due to his fascination with war stories. He started playing Doom, an action-horror first-person shooter game, when he was 11 years old. Harris constantly retreated to the internet as his father’s career took him out of school and pulled him away from friends.
When Harris became a sophomore at Columbine, he made different customer levels for Doom and Doom 2. Klebold and Harris met in middle school but became inseparable in high school. Brown participated in the theatre department, and Klebold followed soon after. Harris, Klebold, and Brown bonded through their shared interests in video games and philosophy. There was a school shooting at Antioch High School back in January, where 17-year-old Solomon Henderson fired a total of 10 shots within 20 seconds, killing a student and then himself.Â
Final Thoughts
In his 2009 book Columbine, Investigative Journalist Dave Cullen described Harris as “the callously brutal mastermind,” while describing Klebold as a “quivering depressive who journaled obsessively about love and attended the Columbine prom three days before opening fire.”
Recently, Anne Marie Hochhalter, 43, died of sepsis due to her injuries from the Columbine shooting. Her death was ruled a homicide by the coroner, raising the death toll to 14. To this day, the United States has, unfortunately, seen many more tragedies of school shootings. The sad thing is, it looks as if Harris and Klebold got what they wanted in popularity. Their horrid actions have since created a subculture of copycats who have sought to commit mass murder in schools themselves. Â
