Massacre at Columbine High School Attack Left 15 Dead
By Mark Obmascik
Denver Post Staff Writer
April 21, 1:15 p.m. MDT - As SWAT teams combed Columbine High
School for more unexploded bombs, America grieved Wednesday for
the shocking attack that left 14 students and one teacher dead.
By 12:30 p.m., police had found more than 30 pipe bombs around
the school, inside booby-trapped cars and in the two suspects'
suburban homes. Police were investigating whether the two
suspects, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, were aided by
others in their murderous rampage.
The two teenagers, part of an outcast school group called the
Trench Coat Mafia, apparently shot themselves to death in the
school library, police said. Near their bodies, law enforcement
officials found at least two shotguns, one handgun and one
carbine.
While hundreds of Coloradans mourned the dead at religious
services, and flags across the state flew at half-staff,
President Clinton asked for a moment of silent prayer at the
White House.
"We all must do more to recognize and look for the early
warning signals that deeply troubled young people send, often
before they explode into violence,'' Clinton said. "Surely
more of them can be saved and more innocent victims and tragedies
can be avoided.''
During the four-hour massacre, the father of one killer contacted
the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office and offered help.
It was too late, DA Dave Thomas said.
Inside the school library, where 12 bodies were found, the crime
scene was so gruesome some law enforcement officers dissolved in
tears.
"There were SWAT team people who were in Vietnam who were
crying and weeping over what they saw,'' Thomas said.
Police said they need at least two more days inside Columbine
High School to collect crime evidence. All 15 bodies remained
inside the school by noon, as a squad of more than 300 state,
local and federal law enforcement officials investigated the
scene.
Seventeen students remained hospitalized from gunshot and bomb
wounds.
The two teenage murderers were arrested last year in a criminal
trespass case, and completed their court-ordered probation in
February, officials said. Police said they were tracking how the
teens obtained so many guns, ammunition and bomb-making
materials.
On a Web page set up by the Trench Coat Mafia student group,
another Columbine student was targeted last year in a death
threat. Though other students reported similar threats, many
shrugged it off as teenage bluster.
"A lot of people didn't take it very seriously. Obviously,
it was serious,'' Thomas said.
The rampage began during the 11:30 a.m. lunch hour Tuesday when
Harris and Klebold, wearing black trench coats and masks, heaved
a pipe bomb onto the school roof and opened fire.
A sheriff's deputy assigned to the school traded gunfire with the
teenagers, who hustled down the hallway to the cafeteria. Within
20 minutes, another deputy arrived and joined the shootout.
After trading gunfire in the hallways, the two law enforcement
officials exited the school and "established a perimeter
outside the school,'' said Sheriff John Stone. Sheriff's
department officials said the deputies left because the situation
was so volatile, and deputies were unsure how many snipers
remained inside the school.
"A deputy can't help if he's dead,'' said department
spokesman Steve Davis.
Within 20 minutes after deputies arrived at the scene, a
makeshift SWAT team entered the school and began retrieving
victims and helping students escape, Davis said.
At the Colorado Legislature today, legislators withdrew for the
year all bills to liberalize the state's concealed weapons law.
At the high school before daybreak, Gov. Bill Owens, a supporter
of liberalized gun laws, said stricter gun legislation wouldn't
have prevented the tragedy.
"Laws wouldn't stop them. I'm afraid it is deeper than
that,'' Owens said. "It's illegal to build pipe bombs. It's
illegal to bring guns into schools. It's illegal to kill people.
Those laws didn't stop them.''
Owens said the state would do everything possible to to help
authorities enforce current laws and to help the victims'
families. But Colorado's resources can go only so far.
"Obviously there is not much you could tell a parent who has
lost their child.''
Sophomore Joshua Lapp, who witnessed about a dozen executions in
the school's library, said the tragedy is uniting Columbine
students.
"We've always kind of banded together as students,'' Lapp
said. "We need to do that now, more than ever.''
Staff writers Kieran Nicholson, Angela Cortez and Jim Kirksey
contributed to this story.
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