Remembering Columbine

Columbine: Anatomy of a School Shooting http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/littleton.htm

by Dave McGowan

For the benefit of those living outside the Denver area, presented here you will find a few facts about the tragedy at Columbine of which you may be unaware and which tend to be at odds with the official report. The official story goes something like this: two disaffected teenagers named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, acting alone with no assistance in the planning or execution of this crime, entered Columbine High on the morning of April 20, 1999, armed to the teeth, and promptly began shooting up the place, leaving twelve fellow students and one teacher dead before turning their guns on themselves. One reporter on the scene wrote that:

"The bloody rampage spanned four hours ... By 3:45 p.m., shots still rang out inside the school (as) more than 200 law enforcement officers and four SWAT teams tried to stop the gunmen and evacuate wounded high school students…." (Denver Post, April 21, 1999). Another quoted Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, one of the first officials on the scene, as saying: "We had initial people there right away, but we couldn't get in. We were way outgunned" (Associated Press, April 20, 1999). Echoing this sentiment was Terry Manwaring, commander of the Jefferson County SWAT team, who claimed: "I just knew the killers were armed and were better equipped than we were." The SWAT teams, therefore, made no effort to confront the killers (Playboy, March 2000).

The official report, meanwhile, contends that the "lunchtime rampage ... ended after 45 minutes" and that "Sometime after noon the killers stood near the library windows and turned their guns on themselves" (Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2000). Strange then that there would be shots ringing out some three-and-a-half hours later. Stranger still is the notion that two teenagers with limited firearms training and armed only with shotguns and 9mm handguns would be able to outgun a veritable army of law enforcement officers, many with advanced paramilitary training and weapons. And you would think that the fact that the two were already dead would at least have slowed them down a bit.

Then there is the issue of the bombs strategically placed throughout the school prior to the shootings. Some of those involved in the investigation of the case were openly skeptical of the notion that the two boys could have transported and placed all the explosive devices that were found. One report noted that: "The 20-pound bomb found inside the Columbine High School kitchen suggests the two teenage suspects were aided by others in their plot to blow up the school, police said Thursday. Packed inside a duffle bag with a wired gasoline can - and surrounded with nails and BBs for maximum killing power - the propane barbecue tank-bomb points to a wider conspiracy, police said." (Denver Post, April 23, 1999). Likewise, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas was quoted as saying: "It is obvious to me that they couldn't have carried them all in at the same time, plus the four weapons" (Denver Post, May 5, 1999). And sheriff department spokesman Steve Davis added that: "From day one we've always felt like there was a very good possibility that more people were involved" (Associated Press, May 14, 1999).

Ultimately recovered, according to the final report, were "95 homemade explosive devices," including two bombs fashioned from propane cylinders (Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2000). Picture, if you will, two teenagers strolling unnoticed into a high school, each carrying two firearms, a propane tank bomb and some fifty other explosive devices, as well as an abundant supply of ammunition. Picture them then proceeding to carefully place each of these 95 bombs throughout the school, still unnoticed and undisturbed by faculty or other students. Nothing unusual about that. Just an average day at an American high school. Yet the possibility is clearly there that there may have been more people involved. Many of the witnesses, at any rate, clearly think so.

"Jefferson County Sheriff John P. Stone raised the specter of a third Columbine High gunman anew Tuesday, saying some students have named another suspect. ‘There was quite possibly one other person shooting,’ Stone said. ‘We do have witness statements.’ The statements came from ‘students who were witnesses at the scene when this was going down,’ and they agreed on the third person's identity, he said" (Denver Post, May 5, 1999). In fact, one initial report from Littleton began: "Three young men in fatigues and black trench coats opened fire at a suburban Denver high school Tuesday...," and also noted that a "third young man was led away from the school in handcuffs more than four hours after the attack, and student Chris Wisher said: 'He's one of the ones who shot at us'" (Associated Press, April 20, 1999). This third suspect has, oddly enough, never been identified or even mentioned again by the press. In a televised interview, the mother of a student who had escaped the attack quoted her daughter as saying that she "looked up and saw a gunman in a black trench coat with a very huge gun ... He had dark brown hair, thick bushy eyebrows and was very ugly," a description that clearly did not fit either Harris or Klebold. When asked if the gunman was a student, the mother replied that: "She didn't recognize him as a student. No. Not as a student" (KUSA-TV, April 20, 1999; transcript posted on The Konformist)

Even more disturbing is a report that: "Dozens of witnesses interviewed by police after the crime claimed that from five to eight individuals participated in the shooting that left 15 people dead, including the killers, and more than 20 injured" (Denver Rocky Mountain News, July 29, 1999). Five to eight individuals? Dozens of witnesses? Something definitely seems to be a bit peculiar here. It is certainly understandable that some witnesses could have trouble recalling some of the details of the attack. In a situation of this nature, extreme levels of fear and confusion can cloud one's recollection. In the ensuing chaos, some witnesses could easily be confused about the number of shooters. Nevertheless, there is a considerable difference between two gunmen and eight gunmen - the latter being pretty much a small army. Is it really possible for dozens of eyewitnesses to be mistaken about the additional three to six gunmen?

This issue could possibly be cleared up by examining the autopsy reports of the various victims. Unfortunately, that isn't likely to happen. It seems that: "The autopsy reports on the Columbine High School victims will not be released to the public, a Jefferson County judge ruled Friday ... Chief District Judge Henry E. Nieto rejected arguments by 18 news organizations ... The coroner's office, district attorney and the family of killer Dylan Klebold joined the 12 families in getting the documents sealed" (Denver Post, May 29, 1999). Another question that could be cleared up by the release of the autopsy reports is the alleged suicides of the two shooters, seeing as how "Klebold was shot once in the left side of the head, apparently by one of two 9 mm weapons ... the wound's location puzzles some investigators. They believe that if the right-handed Klebold had shot himself, the wound should have been on the other side" (Denver Rocky Mountain News, June 13, 1999). Some authorities now believe (or claim to anyway) that Harris shot Klebold before shooting himself. It seems just as likely, however, that a third party shot Klebold, and perhaps Harris as well.

Moving on to what is perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the case, we come now to the infamous videotape. You know, the one that was made in 1997, two years before the actual assault, and which "depicts gun-toting, trench coat-wearing students moving through Columbine's halls and ends with a special-effects explosion of the school." The one that was co-produced by "the son of the FBI's lead agent in the investigation" (Associated Press, May 8, 1999). There's certainly nothing unusual about that. It's actually standard FBI procedure to have your son shoot a training film for a high school slaughter a couple of years beforehand. It's also standard procedure to have your other son on hand to eyewitness the crime. Which is why "(Dwayne Fuselier's) youngest son, Brian, was in the school cafeteria at the time and managed to escape after seeing one of the bombs explode" (Denver Post, May 13, 1999).

It should also be noted that another "student who helped in the production of the film (was) Brooks Brown…" (Associated Press, May 8, 1999). Brooks Brown claimed to have encountered Harris and Klebold as they were approaching the school, and to have been warned away by the pair from entering the campus that day. According to his story, he heeded the warning and was therefore not present during the shooting spree. Fair enough, but let's try to put these additional pieces of the puzzle together. First, we have the son of the lead investigator, who was obviously a member of the so-called Trenchcoat Mafia, involved in the filming of a pre-enactment of the crime. Then we have a close associate of both Fuselier and of Harris and Klebold (and a co-filmmaker) being in the company of the shooters immediately before they entered the school, this by his own admission. And yet, strangely enough, none of them was connected in any way to the commission of this crime, according to official reports. Not even Brooks Brown, who should have, if nothing else, noticed that the pair had some unusually large bulges under their trench coats on this particular day. At the very least, one would think that there might be just a little bit of a conflict of interest for the FBI's lead investigator.

This does not appear to be the case, however, as "FBI spokesman Gary Gomez said there was ‘absolutely no discussion’ of reassigning Fuselier, 51, a psychologist, in the wake of the disclosures in Friday's Denver Rocky Mountain News. ‘There is no conflict of interest,’ Gomez said" (Denver Rocky Mountain News, May 8, 1999). And as no less an authority than Attorney General Janet Reno has stated: "It has been a textbook case of how to conduct an investigation, of how to do it the right way" (Denver Post, April 23, 1999).

Meanwhile, on May 6, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that a Columbine High student had been found hanged. His death was ruled a suicide, though "Friends were mystified, saying there were no signs of turmoil in the teenager's life." One noted that he had "talked to him the night before, and it didn't seem like anything was wrong." The young man had been a witness to the shooting death of teacher Dave Sanders. His was the fourth violent death surrounding Columbine High in just over a year since the shootings, bringing the body count to nineteen. Very little information was released concerning this most recent death, with the Coroner noting only that: "Some things should remain confidential to the family," (Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2000). On February 14, 2000, two fellow Columbine students were shot to death in a sandwich shop just a few blocks from the school. In yet another incident, the mother of a student who was shot and survived "walked into a pawnshop in October, asked to see a gun, loaded it and shot herself to death," (Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2000). Unexplained was why the shopkeeper would have supplied her with the ammunition for the gun.

Depositions in settled Columbine High School case to be destroyed http://www.rcfp.org/news/2003/0930rohrbo.html

Sep. 30, 2003 -- A Colorado magistrate judge ordered the destruction of depositions in a recently settled lawsuit stemming from the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, ruling last week that "there would be no further purpose, need or use" for the documents. Barry Arrington, attorney for the five families who sued the parents of teenage killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, said he will appeal U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Coan's order. "We didn't get a hearing," said Arrington. "This ruling was made without any due process of law." What's more, Arrington said, two other Columbine-related lawsuits have yet to be finalized, counter to findings in Coan's Sept. 23 ruling. Arrington represents the plaintiffs in each of those cases, which are currently on appeal, he says. The settlement agreement between the five families and the parents of Klebold and Harris is confidential, lawyers from both sides said. The settlements were made in mid-August and include an agreement to keep the depositions confidential. According to legal experts, however, Coan apparently has little faith the agreement will be honored.

"Courts have wide discretion" in protecting records, said Sheila Hyatt, a professor of civil procedure at the University of Denver College of Law, in a Denver Post column Sept. 28. "The parties here are so concerned about the release of these depositions that they think the only way to prevent leaks is to actually destroy them." In April, U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock issued a gag order preventing all parties from discussing the depositions. The deposed parties were Susan and Thomas Klebold, Wayne and Katherine Harris, and Judy Brown, a parent of a Columbine High student who received death threats from Eric Harris well prior to the April 20, 1999, shootings. Since Coan's order, Arrington said, all copies of the depositions have been rounded up by a court administrator and are being held under lock and key.

Court allows new views of the murder rampage of two teenagers http://rcfp.org/news/mag/28-2/foi-lettingt.html

By Andrew Brown © 2004 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Not all information relating to the tragedy has been released, however. In January, the state's Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by Jackson that made public certain writings and videotapes made by Harris and Klebold. The Denver Post argued that portions of a videotape made by the teens had already been transcribed verbatim in Time magazine. Excerpts of their writings could also be found in the biographies section of the final report of the Sheriff's Office. If significant portions of the materials are publicly available, it should all be open, the newspaper argued.

The appeals court did not agree, ruling that the records could be considered criminal justice records -- exempt from the state open records law -- and sent the case back to Jackson for further review. Jackson must determine if the tapes and writings can be disclosed, or if they will remain protected as criminal justice records. The Post on Jan. 30 asserted that Jackson should rule whether the records were being held by the sheriff for the ongoing "use and exercise of an official function." If not, then Jackson must release the records.

In March 2002, the Rocky Mountain News sought records of Stone's e-mail messages to discover how his department responded to the shootings. County officials asked for $1.07 million to fill the request, noting that payment wouldn't even guarantee disclosure. The price tag, officials said, was necessary to bypass an electronic security system and recover costs to find out if e-mail was covered by the Colorado Open Records Act. The News requested a fee-waiver, was denied, and refused to pay the exorbitant sum. Marc Flink, counsel to the paper, said the News didn't pursued the records any further.

"There are still missing files, lies, secret records and coverups," said Randy Brown, a member of the Columbine Open Records Task Force and a neighbor to the Harris family, in a February story in The Washington Post. Also still withheld are more than 200 pages of interviews with Columbine High School staff, all public employees, conducted shortly after the shootings. Those records have been partially sealed under attorney-client privilege, and are stored at the Colorado state archives with thousands of other pieces of evidence from the shootings.