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The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Unraveling the Darkness: The Columbine High School Massacre Part 2
What ignites such darkness in the human soul? This episode untangles the grim threads of the Columbine High School massacre, shedding light on the calculated actions of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. From their ominous preparations with propane tanks and makeshift bombs to the eerie absence noted by their peers, we chart the path of two young men driven to unleash chaos and horror on April 20, 1999. With chilling precision, they orchestrated an attack that would leave an indelible mark on history.
The madness unfolds with a surreal twist—gunfire mistaken for a game, tranquilizer darts, and the desperate scramble for safety. We recount the terrifying moments inside the school, where the line between reality and nightmare blurred. Amidst the chaos, heroes like Coach Sanders emerged, guiding students to safety. This episode captures the raw fear, the instinctive bravery, and the critical moments that defined a day of unspeakable tragedy.
As the dust settles, the response effort by law enforcement and first responders takes center stage. From the tense actions of Deputy Gardner and Deputy Smoker to the strategic yet chaotic SWAT maneuvers, we examine the complex reality of managing a crisis of this magnitude. The ethical challenges faced by media outlets, the struggle for accurate information, and the heart-wrenching tales of survival intertwine to paint a comprehensive picture of the Columbine tragedy. Join us as we navigate this haunting narrative, reflecting on the harrowing events and their lasting impact on a community and a nation.
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is part two of the column by mass murders. Let's begin. Dylan was out of the house by 5.30. His parents were still in bed and he called out, you know, saying goodbye, and shut the door behind himself. They skipped bowling class and went straight to work. Dylan scrolled the schedule into Eric's day planner under the heading Make Today Count. Eric illustrated it with a blazing gun barrel. First stop was the grocery store where they met up to acquire the last of the propane tanks Two for the cafeteria, two for each car and two for the decoy.
Speaker 1:The big bombs were the heart of the attack. Eric had designed them months before but had left acquisition to the final morning. The boys had stashed most of the arsenal in Eric's bedroom closet and he had faced a couple of close calls with his parents. Already Hiding a cluster of 20-pound tanks in there was out of the question. They returned to Eric's house at 7 and then split up. Eric filled the propane tanks, dylan got the gasoline. They allotted half an hour to assemble the big bombs and set up the cars and an hour for one last round of gear up, practice and chill, and they got something to eat. Dylan apparently had potato skins.
Speaker 1:Several friends noticed peculiarities. Robin Anderson was surprised to see Dylan a no-show for calculus. He had sounded fine on the phone the previous night. Then a friend told her that Eric had been missing from third hour. The boys caught an occasional class together, but never an entire morning. Robin hoped Dylan wasn't sick and she made a mental note to call once she got home. The friend Brooks Brown had a stronger reaction Eric had missed a test in psychology class. What kind of stunt was that?
Speaker 1:Shortly before 11 am, eric and Dylan set off with the arsenal. Dylan wore cargo pants, a black t-shirt printed with wrath and his red socks cab turned backward as usual. His cargo pockets were deep enough to conceal most of the saw-off shotgun before he pulled on the duster. Eric's T-shirt said Natural Selection. They both wore black combat boots and shared a single pair of black gloves the right on Eric, the left on Dylan. They left two pipe bombs behind at Eric's house, six at Dylan's, and Eric laid a microcassette on the kitchen counter with some final thoughts. They also left the basement tapes with a final goodbye recorded.
Speaker 1:That morning they dropped separate cars to a park near Eric's house, dumped a decoy bomb in a field and set the timers for 11.14. Comeback operations were underway. They hopped back in their cars and headed for the school. And headed for the school. They had to bustle now. Hustle and bustle because the last few minutes were going to be critical. They couldn't plant the big bombs until A lunch began. Fourth period ended at 11.10 am. Once the bell rang, they only had seven minutes to carry the bombs in, navigate the turbulent lunch crowd, stash the bombs by the designated pillars, get back to their cars, gear up, take cover and prepare to attack Every.
Speaker 1:Pull into the parking lot at 11.10, several minutes behind schedule, a couple of girls spotted his car as they'd headed out for lunch. They honk and wave. They liked him. Eric waved back and smiled. Dylan followed him in no waves. Dylan drove to his normal spot in the senior lot and parked his BMW directly in front of the cafeteria when the attack began. This would afford him a clear sweep of the southwest side of the building. The long, wide arc of green-tinted windows that wrapped the commons on the first floor and the library above. Eric continued on to the small junior lot about 100 yards to Dillon's right. Eric had the choice spot directly facing the student entrance where the bulk of the survivors would presumably flee. He could also cover the full southeast side of the building and interlock his fire with Dillon's to his left.
Speaker 1:Brooks Brown walked out for a cigarette and spotted Eric parking in the wrong lot. Brooks charged up to confront him about the test. By the time he got there, eric had stepped out and was pulling out a big hulking duffel bag. And Brooks yeah, what's the matter with you? We have a test in psychology. And Eric was calm but insistent and said it doesn't matter anymore. Brooks, I like you now Get out of here, go home. Brooks thought that was strange, but he shook his head and walked on away from the school. Eric's friend, nate Dykeman, also caught sight of him arriving and also found the circumstances strange. Eric headed in with his duffel by 11.12,. They were scheduled to be back at their cars arming up.
Speaker 1:A surveillance tape stamped 11.14 indicates that they had still not entered the commons. They had less than three minutes. The timers were set for 1117. There was only a modest chance that they could make it to safety on time and they could hardly have hoped to be locked and loaded when the bombs blew. They could have reset the timers and sacrificed a few casualties. That would have required coordination, as they had parked across the lot from each other and it would be risky to expose the bombs inside the cafeteria. They could have abandoned the plan, but the decoy bombs might already be exploding.
Speaker 1:Shortly after 11.14, they enter the commons. They move inconspicuously enough to go unnoticed. Not one of the 500 witnesses noticed them or the big bulky bags. One of the bags will be found inches from two tables strewn with food. They made it out and armed quickly. It was just like the drill, except this time each was alone, close enough for hand signals too far to hear. They strapped on their arsenals, covered them with the dusters. Time was tight and they broke with their drill, leaving the shotguns in the duffel bags. Each boy had a semi-automatic against his body, a shotgun in his bag and a backpack full of pipe bombs and crickets. This is probably the moment they set the timers on their car bombs. It would just be a matter of seconds. Now. Hundreds of kids dead. As far as they knew, they have instigated mass murder already. The timers were winding down. Nothing to do but wait. Surveillance cameras should have caught the killers placing the bombs. They would have if either the bombers or the custodian had been on time.
Speaker 1:Every morning the custodian followed the same routine. A few minutes before a lunch he pulled out the pre-lunch tape and set it aside for later viewing. He popped an old, used tape into the machine, rewound it and hit record. Rewinding took up to five minutes, meaning a brief pause and taping. Kids could leave all the garbage they wanted during that window, but hardly anyone was around to do so. The custodian was running late. On Tuesday he hit the stop button at 11.14 and no bombs were visible. Neither was Zarek or Dylan. While waiting out the rewind, the custodian got a phone call. He talked and the tape sat a little longer. He got the new tape in and hit record at 11.22, leaving an 8-minute gap. The first frame shows the bombs visible and students near the windows beginning to react. Something peculiar outside has caught their attention.
Speaker 1:Columbine ran on a bell schedule. Most of its inhabitants follow a strict routine. Several of them had broken it Tuesday morning. Several of them had broken it Tuesday morning. Patrick Ireland, the junior, afraid to ask Laura to the prom. Like Variety Some days he spent a lunch in the library, others in the cafeteria. He had stayed up late talking to Laura on the phone again and still had to finish his dad's homework. So he headed to the library with four of his buddies. As Eric and Dylan positioned the duffel bags, patrick sat down at a table just above one of the bombs. Cassie Bernal, the evangelical junior who had transferred to Columbine to enlighten non-believers, pulled up a chair near the window. It was unusual to find her in the library at this hour. She was also behind on her homework, trying to complete an English assignment on Macbeth, but she was happy she had finished the presentation she would be making to her youth group that night. Mr D was oddly absent from the cafeteria. His secretary had booked an interview, delaying his rounds. He sat in his office at the opposite end of the main corridor waiting for a young teacher to arrive. Mr D was about to offer him a permanent position.
Speaker 1:Deputy Neil Gardner, the community resource officer, worked for the Sheriff's Department but was assigned full-time to Columbine. He normally ate with the kids and a lunch was his optimal chance for bonding a key element of his job. He wore the same security uniform with the bright yellow shirt every day, so he was easy to spot. Tuesday Gardner took a break from his normal routine. He didn't care for the teriyaki on the menu. So he went for takeout from Subway with his campus boss, an unarmed civilian security guard. It was a beautiful day.
Speaker 1:Lots of kids were outside so they decided to check out the smokers. They ate their sandwiches in Garner's squad car in the faculty lot beside the smokers' pit in the opposite side of the school. Robin Anderson sat in her car nearby. She had driven out of the senior lot just about the time Eric and Dylan were hauling the bombs in but had missed them. She had swung around the building to pick up two friends. She got antsy. Lunchtime was slipping away. Five minutes passed, maybe ten, and finally the girls appeared. Robin snarled at them and they drove off. On the opposite end of the school shots had already been fired.
Speaker 1:A freshman named Danny Robo went to the commons to meet up with two buddies. After a few minutes they decided to head out for a smoke. If the bombs had worked that choice might have saved them. He might have gotten out just in time. They headed out a side exit at the worst moment, directly alongside the senior parking lot.
Speaker 1:The bombers spent a minute or two by their cars. They knew the diversionary bomb should have already blown three miles to the south. In fact, it had fizzled. A surveyor working in the area had moved it, and then the pipe bombs and one of the spray cans had detonated, producing a loud bang and a grass fire. But the propane tanks, the main explosive force, laid undisturbed in the burning field. The decoy was Eric's only big bomb to ignite at all, but one of his dumber ideas. Officials learned of it just as the shooting started, four minutes before the first call from the school. The chief effect was to alert authorities that something was amiss in the area. Nothing of consequence was delivered.
Speaker 1:Eric and Dylan had to proceed on faith. As far as Eric and Dylan knew, cops were already speeding south and they would see the commons disintegrate. Though Each car was positioned for a perfect view, the cafeteria would explode in front of them. They would watch the classmates be torn apart and incinerated and their high school burning to the ground. We'll be right back Now. It's 11.18, and the school's still intact.
Speaker 1:Some kids had already made it through the lunch lines and were strolling outside, settling onto the lawn for a little picnic. No sign of disturbance. The timing devices were not precise. No digital readouts with seconds counting down in red numerals. There were old-fashioned clocks with a third little alarm, hand-positioned two-fifths of the way between the three and the four, but they should have blown by now.
Speaker 1:Hundreds of targets streamed out to student entrance. They hopped into their cars and zipped away. Time for plan B. There was no plan B. Eric had staggering confidence in himself. He left no indication that he planned for contingencies. Dylan left no indication that he planned much of anything. They could just proceed to act. Two Mow the departures down in a crossfire in advance on the exits, as scripted. They still could have topped McVie, but they didn't.
Speaker 1:The bomb failure appears to have rattled one of the boys. No one observed what happened next. Either boy might have panic, but Eric was unflappable, the reverse of his partner. The physical evidence also points to Dylan. Eric apparently acted swiftly to retrieve his emotional young partner. We don't know whether they employed their hand signals or how they came together. We know that Eric was in the prime location yet abandoned it to come to Dylan's and Eric moved quickly. Within two minutes Eric had figured out the bombs had fell, grabbed his packs, crossed the lot into Dylan's car, rushed with him to the building, climbed the external stairs to the west exit. That's the first place they were observed at 1119.
Speaker 1:The new position set them on the highest point on campus where they could survey both lots and all the exits on that side of the building. But it took them away from their primary target the student entrance. Still disgorging students, they could no longer triangulate or advance aggressively without separating. At 1119, they opened the duffel bags at the top of the stairs, pulled out the shotguns and strapped them to their bodies. They locked and loaded the semi-automatics and one of them yelled go go. And somebody almost certainly Eric open fired.
Speaker 1:Eric wheeled around and shot at anyone he could see. Dylan cheered him on. He rarely fired. They hid pedestrians among the trees, picnickers to the south, kids coming up the stairs to the east. They toss pipe bombs down the stairs into the grass, onto the roof and they share a whole lot of boots and hoots and howls and hearty laughs. Rachel Scott and her friend Richard Castaldo were the first down. They had been eating their lunch in the grass. Eric shot Richard in the arms and torso. He hit Rachel in the chest and head. Rachel died instantly. Richard played dead. Eric fell for it.
Speaker 1:Danny and his smoking buddies Lance Kirkland and Sean Graves were headed up the dirt path toward their stairs. They saw the gunman firing, but they assumed it was a paintball game or a senior prank and it looked like fun. They rushed straight toward the shooters to get closer to the action. Danny got out ahead, making it halfway up the stairs. Eric pivoted and fired his carbine rifle. A shot tore through Danny's left knee, in the front and out the back. He stumbled and began to fall. Eric fired again and again as Danny collapsed. He took a second bullet to the chest and a third to the abdomen. The upper round went straight through him as well, causing severe trauma to his heart. It stopped pumping immediately. The third shot lacerated his liver and stomach because it made your organ damage and lodging inside. Lance tried to catch Danny but realized he had been hit too multiple times in the chest, leg, knee and foot. Danny's face hit the concrete sidewalk. Death was almost instantaneous.
Speaker 1:Lance went down on the grass. He blacked out but continued to breathe. Sean burst out laughing. He was sure it was paintball. They were part of the game.
Speaker 1:Now Sean felt a shot zip by his neck. It left a cool breeze in his wake. He felt a couple of pricks like an IV needle being pulled out. He did not realize that he had been shot. He looked around. Both his friends were down. Pain signals reached Sean's brain and it felt like someone had kicked him in the back. He ran back for the door they had come out. He nearly made it, but the pain overcame him. His legs gave out and he collapsed. He couldn't feel his legs anymore. He could not understand what had happened. He seemed to have been shot by a tranquilizer gun.
Speaker 1:Eric turned again and spotted five kids under a clump of pines in the grass. He fired and the kids took off running. One fell, he played dead, oh so Another took a hit but kept on running. The last three got away clean. The shooters kept moving. Lance regained consciousness. He felt someone hovering above him. He reached up toward the guy tucked on his pant leg and he cried for help. It was the gunman. He said sure, I'll help. The wait seemed like forever to Lance. He described the next event as a sonic blast that twisted his face apart. He watched chunks of it fly away. Breath came rapidly, air in blood out and he faded out again.
Speaker 1:Dylan made his way down the hill towards Sean. Several people in the cafeteria saw him coming. Someone ran out, grabbed Sean and started dragging him in. An adult stopped him. She said it was dangerous to move a seriously injured person. Sean ended up propped in the entrance with the door pressed against him. Someone tried to step over him on the way out, planted a foot into Sean's back and said oh sorry, dude. A janitor came by and reassured Sean. He held Sean's hand, said he would stay with him but he had to help the kids escape first. He advised Sean to play dead and Sean did. Dylan fell for it again, or pretended to. He stepped right over Sean's crumpled body and walked inside. A stampede was underway in there. The lunch crowd had panicked. Most took cover under tables, some ran for the stairs.
Speaker 1:Coach Sanders heard the commotion in the faculty lounge and ran to the danger. I don't think he even thought about it. His instinct was to save kids. Dave burst into the commons, tried to take charge. Two custodians followed him to assist. Sanders, directed students to get down. He rethought that pretty quickly and then he yelled run.
Speaker 1:Students started running and Sanders looked around and there were exits in three directions, but most of them looked bad. There was one plausible option across the commons and up the wide concrete stairway to the second floor. No telling what was up there, but anything was better than this. Sanders led the way. He ran across the open room unprotected, waving his arms to get the kids' attention, yelling for them to follow. The Tavers offered little true protection, but they felt a lot safer. It was scary out in the open. The kids trusted Coach Sanders, though.
Speaker 1:A wave of students swirled behind Sanders. Most of the 488 people in the commons followed him toward the stairs. He bolted to the top and spun around to direct traffic To the left. To the left, he said, and he sent them all down the corridor to the east exit away from the senior parking lot. The whole time he was just saving people. One of the students said he took me and just pushed me into a room. Some students stopped to warn others, some just ran. Someone ran into the choir room and yell there's a gun. Half the kids took over uh and started running, took cover. The other half fled A few doors down in science room three students were immersed in a chemistry test. They heard something like rocks being thrown against the windows, but the teacher assumed it was a prank and he said to stay seated and concentrate on the test. Dave Sanders stayed behind until every kid had passed. The tail end of the mop was just pushing its way to the stairs.
Speaker 1:As Dylan stepped inside the cafeteria there were 24 steps. About 100 kids were caught on the staircase racing for cover. On the second floor they were wedged between each other and the steel railings, nowhere to take cover. They were arrayed at different heights for easy access. Crouching was not an option. Anyone attempting to stop would get trampled. The cafeteria was roughly 100 feet wide. Dylan was in easy firing range. One or two pipe bombs or one burst from his Tech-9 would have halted the entire advance.
Speaker 1:Dylan took a few steps in, lifted his weapon up to firing position. This was the second time since setting the timers that Dylan separated from Eric. For the second time Dylan appeared to lose his nerve. He swept his rifle in an arc across the room. He watched the students disappear up the stairs and he did not fire. He had only engaged his weapon a few times. Dylan looked around, then turned and stepped back over Sean in the doorway. The heavy door whacked Sean hard again in its grip. Dylan rejoined Eric at the top of the stairs.
Speaker 1:It's not clear why Dylan made his cafeteria excursion. Many have speculated that he came down to see what went wrong with the bombs, but he never went near them. He made no attempt at detonation. It's more likely that Eric sent him to check for opportunities and rev up the body count. Dylan did nothing on his own. Dylan did nothing on his own, but Eric amused himself heartily at the top of the stairs, shooting, laughing, hurling pie bombs, he spotted a junior named Anna Marie Holthalter getting up from the curb to make a run for it. Eric hit her with a 9mm round. She kept running and he hit her again and this time she went down. A friend picked her up, dragged her to the building and got her out of Eric's sight. Then he let go of her and ran. He ducked behind a car in the senior lot and a pipe bomb exploded where Anne Marie had first collapsed and one of the killers yelled this is awesome.
Speaker 1:By the time Dylan rejoined Eric they had used up all the easy targets. Everybody caught outside had run like crazy or hidden. One last pack was still in the open. Outside had run like crazy or hidden. One last pack was still in the open. These students had fled across the senior lot, climbed over the chain link fence and were racing across the soccer field near the base of Rebel Hill. Eric had a go at them but they were too far, not out of range, just too hard to hit. Dylan fired at the distant targets, bringing his total shot count up to five. It was 11-23. The killers had enjoyed four hitting minutes.
Speaker 1:Deputy Gardner was the first officer alerted. Gardner was the first officer alerted. The custodian radioed Gardner as soon as he started the new surveillance tape and caught sight of kids near the windows. The custodian sounded scared. The first 911 call came through to Jeffco. At the same time A girl was injured in the senior parking lot. The caller said I think she's paralyzed.
Speaker 1:The dispatch hit the police van at 11.23, just as Gardner drove around the building to the commons and Dylan rejoined Eric at the top of the stairs Female down. The dispatcher said Gardner saw smoke rising and kids running. He heard gunshots and explosions in a flurry of dispatches on his radio. He couldn't quite tell where the commotion was coming from. Four minutes into the mayhem much of the student body was oblivious. Hundreds were running for their lives but more sat quietly in class. Many heard the commotion, few sensed any danger. Most found it annoying.
Speaker 1:The chaos and the solitude went on side by side, often only yards apart, as Dave Sanders ushered kids to the common staircase, part-time art teacher Patty Nielsen paced above him on whole monitor. Duty Nielsen paced above him on whole monitor. Duty Sanders herded the lunch crowd up the stairway toward her, but then down a parallel hallway. Nearly 500 students' kids charged the length of the building. Nielsen never so heard them. She heard the racket outside, though, and some kids ran up saying they heard gunfire.
Speaker 1:Nielsen was annoyed. She thought it was a prank, obviously, or a video shoot that had gone on far too long. She looked down the corridor to the west exit and through the large glass panes in the doors she could see a boy with his back to her. He had a gun. He was firing it into the senior lot. She assumed it was a prop, a loud one and totally inappropriate. Nielsen stormed down the hallway to tell him to knock it off.
Speaker 1:A junior named Brian racked along to watch or tag along, I should say To watch and they approached the exit just as the shooters ran out of targets. There were two sets of doors there, separated by an airlock. Nielsen and Brian passed the first set and reached for the second handles. Eric spotted them. He turned, raised the rifle to his shoulder, aimed at Nielsen, and smiled. And then he fired. The glass shattered but the bullet missed. Nielsen still thought it was a BB gun and then she saw the size of the hole and that's when she screamed dear God, dear God, dear God. She turned to run. He fired again Another miss, but glass and metal shards and possibly a gracing bullet tore through the back of her shoulder. It burned. Brian had turned too. Nielsen heard him grunt, saw him lurch forward, his back arch, his arms flared and he hit the floor hard. That looked bad, but he got right up onto his hands and knees to scurry back through the first doors. It was shrapnel, just like hers. She got down too and they crawled a short distance back to the first doors. They got one partially open and squeezed through. Once they had that door behind them they rose to their feet and ran.
Speaker 1:Nielsen was desperate for a phone. The library seemed like an obvious destination. It was just around the corner, spanning most of the south hallway, behind a glass wall, spanning most of the south hallway, behind a glass wall. Nilsen saw dozens of kids milling a ball inside, plainly visible to the shooters she pictured on her heels. She never looked back to see. Nilsen ran into the library to warn them and she yelled there's a kid with a gun. There were no adults and that surprised Nilsen. Teacher Rich Long had rushed in moments before, yelled at everyone to get out and then fled to warn others. Patty Nilsen had the opposite instinct. She ordered them down. Then Nilsen grabbed the phone behind the counter and punched in 9 and then 911. She concentrated her details like an extra nine for an outside line.
Speaker 1:Nilsson expected the shooter to arrive any moment now, but Eric was not following. He had been distracted. Deputy Gardner had pulled into his lot with lights flashing and siren blaring. Gardner had stepped out of his car, still confused about what he was walking into. Eric opened fire. He got off 10 rounds, all misses. Dylan did nothing, oh, mrs Dillon did nothing. Gardner took cover behind his police car and Eric didn't even hit that. Then his rifle jammed. Eric fought to clear the chamber. Dillon fled into the school. Gardner saw his opening and he laid his pistol across the roof and squeezed off four shots. Eric spun around like he had been hit Neutralized. Gardner thought what a relief. Seconds later Eric was firing again. It was a short burst. Then he retreated inside. It was 11.24.
Speaker 1:The outside ordeal lasted five minutes. Eric did most of the shooting. He fired his 9mm rifle 47 times in that period and did not use his shotgun. Dylan got just three shots off with a Tech 9 handgun and two with his shotgun. They headed down the hallway toward the library. Dave Sanders heard the shots when Eric fired on Patty Nilsen. Coach Sanders ran toward the gunfire. He passed the library entrance just moments after Nilsen ran in. He spotted the killers at the other end of the hallway. He wheeled around and ran for the corner. A boy peeked out of the choir room just in time to see him flee. Sanders wasn't just running for it, he was trying to clear students out of the line of fire and yell get down, get down, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1:The story took 28 minutes to hit local television. The networks quickly followed. Something awful was happening at a high school near Denver. Coverage began with confused reports about a shooting in the outlying suburbs. No confirmation on injuries, but multiple shots, as many as nine and possible explosions. Automatic weapons might be involved, possibly even grenades. A fire had been reported. Swat teams were mobilizing. At 11.54 am, denver time, cnn cut to DEFCO and stayed there non-stop all afternoon. To Jeffco and stay there non-stop all afternoon. The broadcast networks began interrupting the soaps. Columbine quickly overshadowed the war. No one seemed to know what had actually happened. Was it still happening?
Speaker 1:Apparently, as the networks went live with the story, gunfire and explosions were erupting somewhere inside that school. Outside it was a mayhem. Shoppers circled, police, firefighters, parents, journalists had descended on the campus. Nobody was going inside. Fresh waves of support troops were arriving by the minutes, but they just crowded around the building. Occasionally students would scurry out. Local stations kept surveying the area hospitals and a journalist reported that there are no patients yet. But they were expecting one victim with an ankle wound. Jeffco 911 operators were overwhelmed. Hundreds of students were still inside the building. Many had cell phones and were calling with conflicted stories. Thousands of parents from all around the area were dialing at the same center demanding information. Many students gave up on 911 and called the TV stations. Local anchors began interviewing them live on the air and the cable networks pick up the feeds.
Speaker 1:Witnesses confirm injuries. There seem to be no enough witnesses, though. Most have seen chaos, but no one causing it. A senior described the first moments of awareness. He said OK, I was sitting in math class and all of a sudden, we look out, there's people that are sprinting down the math hall and we open the door we hear a shot, a loud bang, and then we hear some guy go holy crap, there's a guy with a gun. So everybody starts freaking out. One of my friends goes up to the door and says there's a guy standing in there. We evacuate to the corner of our classroom and my teacher just doesn't know what to do because she's so freaked. So there appear to be several shooters, or boys or white or Columbine students.
Speaker 1:Some were shooting in the parking lot, some in the cafeteria, some upstairs, while robbing the halls. Somebody was positioned on the roof. Some of the assault team wore t-shirts, others had bands and long black trench coats. One pair included one of each. Some had hats. One or two were hiding behind ski masks. Some of this mix-up was standard crime scene confusion. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, especially when witnesses were under duress. Memories could jumble and witnesses imagine missing details without realizing they're doing it. But much of this misunderstanding was due to specific factors. Eric, he discarded his trench coat at the top of the stairs almost as soon as he began shooting Dylan. He kept his on until he got to the library. Each costume change created another shooter.
Speaker 1:The school's location on a hill, with nearby entrances on both floors, allowed Eric and Dylan to be seen upstairs and downstairs almost simultaneously to be seen upstairs and downstairs almost simultaneously. The long-range weapons scattered gunfire over a shooting radius hundreds of yards wide. Distant witnesses had no idea where the shooters were. They only knew they were under attack. Some witnesses listened carefully and correctly located the source of the turbulence. But the bomb blast often led them astray. Particularly when bombs landed on the roof, several kids were sure something was coming from up there. They spotted a frightened air-conditioner repairman and instantly identify him as the rooftop gunman. Word whipped through the Columbine community. Kids called home on their cell phones the minute they got to safety or someplace they hoped would remain safe. About 500 students were off campus, either for lunch or sick or cutting class. The first sign of a problem came when they hid police barricades as they tried to return. Cops were everywhere, more cops than they had ever seen.
Speaker 1:Nate Dykeman was one of the kids heading back in. He was stunned by the stories he heard. Nate had gone home for lunch, same as he did every day, but on the way out he had seen something peculiar Eric walking into the building from the wrong parking lot at the wrong time. He should have been walking out. Eric and Dylan had both been missing that morning. They were up to something obviously Odd that they had not included him or Cole. At least Maybe not Eric, he wasn't the most thoughtful friend, but Dylan Dylan was, dylan would have Cole. There have been some weird stuff going on between those two lately pipe bombs and guns.
Speaker 1:When Nate heard about the shooting he got nervous. When someone mentioned the trench coats, that sealed it and Nate thought this isn't happening, this cannot be happening. He ran into his girlfriend who was stopped at the intersection and she was also a good friend of Eric's. She followed Nate home and then Nate did the same thing nearly everyone was doing. He started dialing friends, checking in to make sure they were all safe. He wanted to call Dylan's house, but this was just way too scary. He wanted to call Dylan's house, but this was just way too scary. Soon he thought to himself he would call soon. So he checked on some other friends first, while Deputy Gardner was firing at Eric. He knew help was on the way and he heard at the police radio traffic that somebody said female down Jeffco issued a metro-wide mutual aid request prompting police officers, firefighters and paramedics from around the city to begin racing toward the foothills. The police band got so congested so quickly that Gardner couldn't alert dispatch that he had arrived.
Speaker 1:After engaging Eric, gardner got back in his car and ready for backup. This time he got through. Gardner followed protocol and did not pursue Eric inside Deputy Paul Smoker, who was a motorcycle cop riding a speeding ticket on the edge of Clement Park when the first dispatch came in. So he radioed that he was responding and got his motorcycle into the grass. He tore through soccer fields and baseball diamonds and arrived at the north side of the building just moments after Gardner's gunplay. He parked behind an equipment shed where a bleeding boy had taken shelter. Another patrol car pulled up right behind him and then another. They all wound around the corner from Gardner, just out of sight. The boy told them he had been shot by Ned Harris. Nobody had any paper so a deputy wrote his name on the hood of his patrol car. They ran forward to help another bleeding student lying in the grass. As they approached they passed into Deputy Gardner's sight line around the corner.
Speaker 1:It had been two minutes since Gardner's gun battle with Eric and he was out of his car with his pistol drawn. Smoker and Gardner spotted each other as Eric reappeared inside the west exit doorway and Gardner yelled there he is, and he opened fire again. Eric ducked back behind the doorframe and he poked his rifle through the shattered pane and returned fire. A couple of students were on the move again and Eric tried to nail them too. Smoker could see where Gardner was firing, but the doorway was blocked from view. He maneuvered down to where he could see Eric and got off three shots. Eric retreated. Smoker heard gunfire inside. More students ran out of the building. He did not pursue.
Speaker 1:Deputies continued arriving. They attended to the scared and wounded and struggled to determine what they were up against. Witnesses came to them and kids saw that. Their police cars at the top of the hill and came running. Some were bleeding. They were all desperate. They lined up behind the cars and crouched near the officers for protection. They provided lots of accurate information. Reports on the police radio conflicted wildly, but any one group in one location tended to offer remarkable, consistent accounts. These kids described two gunmen in black trench coats shooting Uzi's or shotguns and throwing hand grenades. At least one appeared to be high school age and some victims knew them.
Speaker 1:Kids kept arriving and the cars were feeble. Protection, protection and the crowd were likely to draw attention. The deputies decided it was paramount to evacuate them. They directed some of the boys to tear their shirts into strips and treat one another's wounds while they devised an escape plan. And treat one another's wounds while they devised an escape plan. They decided to line several patrol cars up as a defensive wall and shuttle the students to safer ground beneath them. Every cop had been trained for events like this. Protocol call for containment.
Speaker 1:The deputies broke into watch teams. They could cover a handful of the 25 exits and protect those students who were already out, and they called it setting up a perimeter. And they would repeat the perimeter phrase endlessly. That afternoon Paramedics were establishing triage areas away from the school and the deputies worked on getting the kids there. Cops would lay down suppressive fire to protect evacuations and scare off opportunistic attacks. They had no idea whether the gunman was still present or interested.
Speaker 1:The officers did not observe or engage the gunmen for some time. Nearly arriving officers covered additional exits. Gunfire was audible to the first officers and continued through the arrival of hundreds more. Deafening explosions kept erupting inside the school. The exterior walls along the cafeteria and the library rumbled from some of the blast. Deputy Smoker could see the green windows buckling. Half a dozen students ran out the cafeteria doors after one shock wave. They made it to another deputy who was guarding the south exits and the deputy thought the shooters might flee the building across the field and hop a chain-link fence separating the school grounds from the first subdivision. And so one of the things that Deputy Smoke said later is that quote we didn't know who the bad guy was, but we soon realized the sophistication of the weapons. These were big bombs, big guns. We didn't have a clue who they were, but they were hurting kids. End quote who they were, but they were hurting kids end quote.
Speaker 1:When the networks went live around noon, hundreds of uniformed responders were present. 35 law enforcement agencies were soon represented. They have gathered an assortment of vehicles, including a Loomis Fargo armored truck whose driver had been working in the area. One student counted 35 police cars speeding past him on his one-mile ride home from school, ambulances and police cars barging over mediums and motorcycle cops weaving through opposite traffic almost killing themselves. Half a dozen cops arrived every minute. Nobody seemed to be in charge. Some cops wanted to assault the building but that was not the plan. Whose plan was this? Where had it come from? They reinforced the perimeter and Eric had exchanged fire with two deputies at 11.24 and 11.26 am. Five and seven minutes into the attack, law enforcement would not fire on the killers again or advance on the building. Until shortly afternoon. Ribbons of yellow police tape marked the perimeter. No one was getting out of there. The issue became getting in Onlookers. Journalists, parents were appearing as fast as policemen and they presented little threat to the deputies but significant danger to themselves.
Speaker 1:Misty Bernard was one of the early arrivals. She did not know that her daughter was in the library or what that might portend. She only knew that Cassie was missing along with her freshman son Chris was missing along with her freshman son Chris. Misty's yard backed right up to the soccer field where Eric had fired on students. Misty was a working mom so she was not present to hear Eric fire tour her house. But her husband Brad was. He had come home sick, heard a couple of pops but thought nothing of them Firecrackers, maybe some pranksters. He lived beside a high school so he was used to commotion. He didn't even put his shoes on to have a look.
Speaker 1:Half an hour later, misty sat down to lunch with a co-worker and got a disturbing call. It was probably nothing, but she called Brad to check. He put on his shoes and Brad went out back and peered over the fence and he saw that the schoolyard was swarming with cops. School yard was swarming with cops. Misty Bernard headed for the high school and Brad hung by the phone At the perimeter. Officers struggled to hold back the parental onslaught. Tv anchors, broadcasters and treaties said quote as difficult as it may be, please stay away. End quote. But fresh waves of moms and dads kept swarming over the hill. Misty gave up.
Speaker 1:Two rendezvous points had been set up and Misty chose the public library on the other side of Clement Park. She found very few students and she started asking the question where were they when they poured out of the high school? Students have seen two main options a subdivision across Pierce Street or the wide open fields of Clement Park. Hardly anyone chose the park. They crouched behind houses. Anyone chose to park. They crouched behind houses, worked themselves under shrubbery, rolled under cars. Any semblance of protection. Some pounded frantically on front doors but most of the houses were locked. Stay-at-home moms started waving strangers in off the street and kids were piling into houses, and one student said that there must have been 150 or 200 kids piled into one house.
Speaker 1:The second rendezvous point was Leawood Elementary, set in the heart of that neighborhood, so most of the survivors gravitated there. Part of that neighborhood, so most of the survivors gravitated there. Parents were sent to the auditorium where kids were paraded across the stage. Moms shrieked, hugs, abounded, unclaimed. Kids stopped quietly backstage because the kids were hard to keep in one place. So they decided to sign in sheets to be posted on the wall so that the parents could see evidence in the child's own hand. There was no parade of survivors at the public library.
Speaker 1:Misty was conflicted, so living for Leawood was risky. The roads have been closed so everything was by foot. Now she could easily miss her kids in transit. A local minister got up on a chair and shouted Please stay here, the fax would arrive at any minute. He assured them they would be much better off waiting. The fax was a copy of the signing sheets from Leawood.
Speaker 1:Misty waited impatiently for its arrival. A slump of students would appear now and then over the hill. If they were not claimed immediately, a pack of moms would descend to interrogate them and always the same question how do you get out? They needed reassurance that there was a way out and one young girl said I didn't know what to do. We heard guns and I was standing there and the teacher was crying and pointing to the auditorium and everybody was running and screaming and we heard an explosion. She said I guess that was a bomb or something. I didn't see this, but we were trying to find out and I guess they shot again and everyone started running and I was like what's going on? They started shooting again and there was complete panic. People were shoving their and they were going into the elevators and people would push people off and we were all just running. Most of the stories sputtered out like that Disjointed flurries of recreated mayhem. The words ran together until the witness ran out of breath. Every escape was different, but they ended the same. The kids escaped. The accumulation was soothing and Misty questioned every kid and she started shouting their names Cassie, chris. She worked her way across the crowd and back and nothing.
Speaker 1:Coman had fallen to the newly elected Jeffco sheriff, john Stone. He had not yet faced a murder case in office. The Metro cops were horrified to discover that the county was in charge. Many were open with their disgust. City and even suburban officers thought of sheriff's deputies as security guards. They were the guys who shadowed defendants to court from the jail. They stood guard while the real cops testified about the crimes they have responded to and investigated. The growths increased when they learned who was heading the command.
Speaker 1:John Stone looked the part of an old West Sheriff. He was big and a burly guy. He had a pot belly and a thick gray mustache, weathered skin. He wore the uniform, the badge and the pistol. But he was a politician. He had been a county supervisor for 12 years. He had run for sheriff last November and had taken the oath in January. He had appointed John Dunaway as his undersheriff, who was another bureaucrat. The sheriff and his team defended the perimeter. Gun blast came and went. The SWAT team seethed. When was somebody going to allow them to advance? Dunaway, named Lieutenant David Walter incident commander. Operations would now be directed by a man who did police work for a living, with oversight from Dunaway and Sheriff Stone.
Speaker 1:The three set up a command post in a trailer stationed in Clement Park half a mile north of the school. Just after noon a SWAT team made its first approach on the school, the officers commandeered a fire truck for cover. Its first approach on the school, the officers commandeered a fire truck for cover. One man drove the truck slowly toward the building while a dozen more moved alongside Near the entrance. They split in half, six and six. Lieutenant Terry Manwaring's team held back to light down suppressive fire and later work its way to another entrance At approximately 12.06,. The other six charged inside. Additional SWAT team members arrived moments later and followed them.
Speaker 1:The team thought they were in striking distance of the cafeteria. They were on the opposite end of the building. Lieutenant Manwaring had been inside Columbine many times but he was unaware it had been remodeled and the cafeteria moved. So he was perplexed. The fire alarm had not been silenced. The men used hand signals. Every cupboard or broom closet had to be treated as a hot zone. Many doors were locked so they blasted them open with rifle fire. Kids trapped in classrooms heard gunfire steadily approaching. Death appeared imminent. Parents, reporters, even cops outside heard the shots and came to similar conclusions. One room at a time, the team worked methodically toward the killers. It would take three hours to reach their bodies.
Speaker 1:On the west side, where the killers were active, a fire department team staged a riskier operation. Half a dozen bodies remained on or near the lawn outside the cafeteria. Several showed signs of life. Anne-marie, lance and Sean had been bleeding for 40 minutes. Deputies along the perimeter moved in closer to provide cover while three paramedics and an EMT rushed in. Eric appeared in the second floor library window and fired on them. Two deputies shot back, others laid down suppressive fire. The paramedics got three students out. Danny was pronounced dead and left behind Eric disappeared dead and left behind Eric disappeared.
Speaker 1:Lieutenant men wearing half of the SWAT team had inched around outside the building using the fire truck for cover. They arrived at the opposite side half an hour later. They rescued Richard Castaldo from the lawn around 1235, an hour and a quarter after he was shot. They made another approach to retrieve Rachel Scott and they brought her back as far as the fire truck and then they determined that she was dead and aborted and they laid her there on the ground. And finally they went for Danny Robo, unaware of the prior finding, so they left him on the sidewalk.
Speaker 1:At 1.15, a second SWAT team charged the building from the senior lot, smashed a window into the teacher's lounge and vaulted in. The officers quickly entered the adjacent cafeteria but found it nearly deserted. Food was left half-eaten on the tables there were books, backpacks, assorted garbage floated about the room, which had been flooded by the sprinkler system. Water was three to four inches high and rising. A fire had blackened ceiling tiles and melted down some chairs. They did not notice the duffel bags held down by the weight of the bombs. One bag had burned away. The propane tank sat exposed, mostly above water, but it blended into the debris. So signs of panic were everywhere. But no injuries, no bodies, no blood.
Speaker 1:The team was shocked to discover dozens of terrified students and staff. They were crouched in storage closets up above the ceiling tiles or plainly visible under cafeteria tables. One teacher had climbed into the ceiling and tried to crawl clear through the ductwork out to safety to warn police, but had fallen through and required medical care. Two men were shivering in the freezer, so cold they could barely lift their arms. The SWAT team searched in and shuttled them out the window. They came in.
Speaker 1:At first that was easy, but the further they moved, the more officers they had to leave behind to secure the route. They brought in more manpower to assist Overhead, circling steadily. There were chopper blades that beat out a steady sound. And Robin Anderson. She watched this all from the parking lot. She had headed to Dairy Queen with her friends. She zipped through the drive-thru, circled back to school and there were a whole lot of cops. When they got back, officers were assembling the perimeter but the entrance to the senior lot was still open. So Robin pulled into her space. A cop strolled up with his gun drawn and said Stay where you are. He warned it was already too late to back out. Robin and her friends would wait in her car for two and a half hours.
Speaker 1:Robin ducked when she saw Eric appear in the library window. She couldn't tell it was him. She was too far back. All she could make out was a guy in a white t-shirt firing a rifle in her general direction. Sorry about that, I have a little bit of bronchitis going on. So anyway, um, she couldn't recognize that it was eric. So all she could tell was um, you know, a guy in the white t-shirt firing a rifle in their general direction. Robin looked over to her friend's spaces. You know Eric, dylan and Zach. They have assigned spots there in a row. They could see. She could see Zach's car, but Eric's and Dylan's cars were missing.
Speaker 1:Nate Dykeman was terrified of who might be responsible. So he had called most of his close friends but had held off on Eric and Dylan. But had held off on Eric and Dylan, he had been hoping to hear from them. Hoping but not really expecting. Dylan would break his heart. They had been tied for years and Nate spent a lot of time at his house and Tom and Sue Claiborne had looked after him. Nate had a lot of trouble at home and the Claibornes had been after him. Nate had a lot of trouble at home and the Claibornes had been like a second mom and dad. Dylan did not call Around noon Nate died at his house.
Speaker 1:Tom Claiborne would be home because he worked from home and you know he was hopefully thinking that Dylan was with him. So Tom picked up and he asked for Dylan and he said no, dylan was not there, he's in school. And Nate said no, actually he isn't. Dylan had not been in class and Nate didn't want to worry Tom. But there had been a shooting. There had been descriptions, the gunmen were in trench coats and Nate knew several kids with trench coats. He was trying to account for all of them. He hated breaking the news but he had to say it. He thought Dylan was involved.
Speaker 1:Tom went up to Dylan's room and checked his closet for the coat and he said oh my God, it's not here. Tom was shocked and Nate say later quote I thought he was going to like drop the phone. He just could not believe that this could possibly be happening and his son was involved. And so Tom told Nate please keep me informed. Whatever you hear. Tom got off the phone and he turned on the TV and there it was everywhere. So he called his wife, sue, and Sue came home. Tom called their older son. He and Sue had kicked Byron out for using drugs so they would not tolerate that behavior. But this was too important. Tom apparently withheld his fears about Dylan. Byron told co-workers that he was terrified. His brother was trapped and he was also worried about younger friends still in school. And lots of Byron's workmates were connected to the school, so they all headed home. Lots of Byron's workmates were connected to the school, so they all headed home. Tom Kleber would call 911 to warn them that his son might be involved and he also called a lawyer.
Speaker 1:The televised version of the disaster was running 30 minutes to an hour behind the cops' view. Anchors dutifully repeated the perimeter concept. The cops had sealed off the perimeter. But what were all those troops doing exactly? There were hundreds out there. Everyone seemed to be milling about. Anchors started wandering aloud and luckily no one seemed to be seriously injured.
Speaker 1:Around 1230, the story took its first grisly turn. Local TV reporters gained access to the triage areas and it was awful so much blood it was hard to identify the injuries. Lots of kids had been loaded into ambulances. Area hospitals were all on alert. Half a dozen used chopper circle, but they withheld most of their footage For a few minutes.
Speaker 1:Stations had broadcast live from the air, but the sheriff's team had demanded they stop. Every room in Columbine was equipped with television. The gunman might well be watching. Cameras would home in on the very images most useful to the killers. Swat maneuvers and wounded kids are waiting rescue. So TV stations also held back news of fatalities. Their shopper crews have seen paramedics examine Danny and leave him behind. The public remain unaware. The stations also caught glimpses of a disturbing scene playing out in a second-story classroom in another wing of the building, far from the library science room number three. It was hard to make out exactly what was going on in there. But there was a lot of activity and one disturbing clue. Someone had dragged a large white marker board to the window with a message in huge block letters. The first character looked a lot like a capital I, but it turned out to be a numeral number one or one bleeding to death. Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.
