Columbine
 A colorised picture from a school CCTV surveillance camera | |
| Date | 20 April 1999 |
|---|---|
| Perpetrators | Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold |
The Columbine Massacre was a school shooting which sparked significant public interest in the ensuing years, fueled by a mixture of the callous, ‘bad boy’ personas of the perpetrators, combined with the continued secrecy of officials in the records and information concerning suspects and events. The shooting also caused a nationwide discussion on video games and whether or not violent content in media is detrimental to youth[1] , as the shooters were avid fans of DOOM and code-named their plan “NBK”, after the film Natural Born Killers.
Official Narrative
On the 20th of April 1999, Columbine High School seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold began the worst school shooting since that year, killing 13 people and wounding 24. The massacre, which took place in Jefferson County, Colorado, brought school shootings into the public consciousness, being an event of national concern that was widely televised and reported on.
The shooting was in reality a failed bombing, as the pair had planted two BLEVE (boiling liquid vapor explosion) devices consisting of propane tanks wired up with clocks to detonate at a set time in the cafeteria during Lunch ‘A’ period. Due to a range of events (including the clock manufacturers changing the material from metal to plastic, preventing a complete circuit and the rushed nature of the bomb-making as Harris had purchased the propane tanks that same morning), their anticipated destruction of the cafeteria and the library above it, potentially killing hundreds, never came to fruition.
At around 11:20 AM, Eric and Dylan realized the bombs must have failed, and began the shooting spree. Alternatively, they may have known that BLEVE devices must heat to a critical point at which they detonate, explaining library witness testimonies of the perpetrators claiming “they’re all going to die anyways”; making it in essence a suicide bombing—mass shooting hybrid.
According to official reports, 2 people were killed outside, one professor was killed in the hallway and 10 kids inside the library. Although much of the massacre appears to be indiscriminate, simply killing those who were unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and other times inexplicably sparing victims, several excerpts from the boys’ diaries and witness testimony of their actions during the shooting indicates that retribution was a major element in their motive. For example, upon entering the library, Harris reportedly shouted, “Everyone with a white hat or baseball cap, stand up!” This is in reference to the fad among jocks at the school of wearing white baseball caps.
After police arrived during their onslaught in the school library, they briefly engaged in shootouts with officers from the windows, hampering paramedics’ attempts to rescue wounded students and faculty, before abruptly committing suicide at 12:08 PM. The following hours of the day involve a heavily scrutinized and belated SWAT team sweep of the school, as no standard protocol or procedure had existed for a school shooting situation at the time. It has been argued that the delayed entry and establishment of an ‘all-clear’ by police indirectly led to the death of staff member Dave Sanders, who likely could have survived with prompt medical care.
The massacre was massively influential upon popular culture in the United States and indeed the developed world, creating many copycat shootings in the following years.
Concerns
Prior to the shooting, Klebold and Harris filmed several videos explaining their actions to their family and the media, often going off on tangents or ranting about grievances at school. A video of Harris driving and briefly sobbing, seemingly apologetic for “what he has to do”, has also been transcribed but not released. This collection of videos is known to journalists and researchers as the ‘Basement Tapes’, and has never been released by Jefferson County.
Interestingly, Harris’ father was a decorated Air Force officer; his job often required the Harris family to relocate across the country. [2]
It is of great interest to many independent researchers that in the JeffCo police report on Columbine (referred to as the ‘11k’, for the near-11,000 pages it comprises), there are dozens of witnesses who testify that they identified more than two shooters. The confidence in these assertions range from unsure to outright defiance of the police/JeffCo narrative. One perpetrator was reported to appear “middle aged, with a chiseled face...” Several witnesses identified a known friend of the shooters, named Robert Perry. Perry was a member of a school clique/gang along with Harris, Klebold, and several other students, known as the “Trench Coat Mafia”. Some ex-members had claimed that the official shooters would often bring up the idea of blowing up the school or shooting peers, but that “it was usually presumed to be a dark joke”. Nevertheless, this proves that the plan was not airtight between Harris and Klebold, meaning it is more likely that they could have convinced other socially outcasted friends to be complicit to some extent.
A news report by ABC’s 20/20 nearly a decade before the massacre concerned “death education”, an experimental teaching program that sought to ‘educate students on the macabre subject of dying and the many theories of what happens after’. Among the schools interviewed as participants in the experiment was Columbine High School. [3]
References
- ↑ Forbes Magazine. ”Expert Calls Blaming Video Games on Tragic Massacres Like Oslo and Columbine Racist”. 7-28-11.
- ↑ Heavy. [https://heavy.com/news/2019/04/eric-harris-parents-brother-wayne-kathy-kevin-harris/ ”Eric Harris’ Parents & Brother”. 2019.
- ↑ ABC 20/20. ”Death in the Classroom”. 1990
