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Columbine Shooting - True Crime Documentary · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: There's been a terrible shooting at a high school in Littleton, Colorado.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Because the situation, as I left to come out here,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: apparently is ongoing, I think it would be inappropriate for
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: me to say anything other than I hope the American
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: people who will be praying for the students, the parents,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and the teachers, and we'll wait for events to unfold,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and then there'll be more to say.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Here's what we know so far. Witnesses say two gunmen
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: dressed in black French coats with black masks open fired
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: at Columbine High School.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: The investigation into the high school massacre is slow moving
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: and dangerous. The two gunmen who went on the rampage
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: booby trapped the building and even themselves.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Amid the gunshots at bomb blast, hundreds of students ran
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: for their lives, stalked in their own school by two
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: of their own classmates who went on a rampage.
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: Nine one one, Yes, I'll take all of that pad book.
• 1:16
  Speaker 6: There is a student kill of a gun and.
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: The toils of a panicy and I'm in the library.
• 1:21
  Speaker 7: Is a gun.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: It's light outside the library.
• 1:23
  Speaker 8: Look, okay, okay, we got help on the way.
• 1:25
  Speaker 6: Man, okay, saying mock God, they don't want to pack.
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: Off, just stay out.
• 1:31
  Speaker 8: Do you know where he's at? I'm sorry, do you
• 1:33
  Speaker 8: know where he's at?
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: Okay? Oh God, he's up here. He's right outside of here.
• 1:38
  Speaker 8: It's outside and outside.
• 1:40
  Speaker 9: Of the hall, May nineteen ninety eight.
• 1:54
  Speaker 10: On the outskirts of Denver, the Columbine area of Littleton, Colorado,
• 1:59
  Speaker 10: feels like the epitome of ordinary America. A quiet suburban
• 2:06
  Speaker 10: community of residential neighborhoods and local shops, with low crime, stability,
• 2:12
  Speaker 10: and a largely white, middle class population. It is a
• 2:16
  Speaker 10: place where danger seems distant and routine defines daily life.
• 2:24
  Speaker 10: At the center of the community stands Columbine High School,
• 2:27
  Speaker 10: a large, modern campus serving nearly two thousand students. It
• 2:33
  Speaker 10: is a typical suburban high school, a place parents trust
• 2:37
  Speaker 10: and students expect to feel safe. Among those students are
• 2:43
  Speaker 10: Eric Harris and Dylan Kleebold. To many teachers and classmates,
• 2:48
  Speaker 10: they are not particularly visible, not popular, not leaders, often overlooked.
• 2:55
  Speaker 10: They spend much of their time together bonding over video games,
• 3:00
  Speaker 10: action movies, and a shared interest in computers and filmmaking,
• 3:06
  Speaker 10: existing on the margins of school life rather than at
• 3:09
  Speaker 10: its center, but beneath the surface, their outlook begins to change.
• 3:18
  Speaker 10: Frustrations build, anger grows. What begins as venting and sharing
• 3:25
  Speaker 10: resentment grows more intense. Over time, their conversations shift. The
• 3:37
  Speaker 10: idea of committing violence, once unthinkable, starts to take shape
• 3:43
  Speaker 10: between them. November nineteen ninety.
• 3:52
  Speaker 9: Eight, Well what a dog I had? You got some people.
• 3:58
  Speaker 10: As their anger and violent thought continue to grow, Eric
• 4:02
  Speaker 10: Harris and Dylan Kleebold take a decisive step. Too young
• 4:07
  Speaker 10: to legally purchase firearms themselves, they obtain guns through a friend.
• 4:14
  Speaker 10: It is a turning point, the moment their ideas begin
• 4:17
  Speaker 10: to move beyond talk. Soon after, they started experimenting with
• 4:23
  Speaker 10: homemade explosives, researching and gathering materials. As their plans expand,
• 4:30
  Speaker 10: what began as a dark conversation is now becoming preparations.
• 4:35
  Speaker 11: A fucking slug imagine that someone's fucking brain.
• 4:39
  Speaker 10: All the while life around them carries on unchanged, Friends, families, teachers,
• 4:47
  Speaker 10: and neighbors remain unaware that behind closed doors, two students
• 4:53
  Speaker 10: are quietly setting in motion events that will lead to
• 4:57
  Speaker 10: one of the darkest days in Americans history. April twentieth,
• 5:08
  Speaker 10: nineteen ninety nine. Seven thirty am, the school gates open
• 5:16
  Speaker 10: at Columbine High. Students file in for what feels like
• 5:20
  Speaker 10: in ordinary spring morning. The halls filled with chatter, Locker's slam,
• 5:26
  Speaker 10: and another routine day begins. In the quiet suburb of Lyttleton.
• 5:32
  Speaker 10: Ten am, two students are noticeably absent. Eric Harris and
• 5:38
  Speaker 10: Dylan Claybold were expected in class for an important test,
• 5:43
  Speaker 10: yet neither has shown up. Some classmates shrug it off.
• 5:48
  Speaker 10: Cleebold occasionally skipped tests, but Harris's absence stands out. At
• 5:55
  Speaker 10: the time, it's little more than a curious detail, but
• 5:59
  Speaker 10: in hindzin it becomes a quiet early sign of what
• 6:03
  Speaker 10: is approaching. Eleven ten am. Eric Harris and Dylan Claybold
• 6:22
  Speaker 10: arrive at Columbine after a late morning departure. They pull
• 6:27
  Speaker 10: into the school parking lot, strategically positioning them to flank
• 6:31
  Speaker 10: the cafeteria area and its exits. Outside, Harris encounters Brooks Brown,
• 6:39
  Speaker 10: an old friend. Though they had disagreements in the past,
• 6:43
  Speaker 10: they are on good terms. As they talk, Harris urges
• 6:47
  Speaker 10: Brown to leave the campus. Feeling uneasy, Brown complies a
• 6:53
  Speaker 10: decision that would ultimately save his life. Fourteen Harris and
• 7:02
  Speaker 10: Kleebold moved deliberately toward the West entrance. Heavy backpacks weigh
• 7:08
  Speaker 10: down their shoulders. They are wearing trench coats. Beneath them,
• 7:12
  Speaker 10: an arsenal of weapons is concealed. Investigators later found that
• 7:18
  Speaker 10: they were carrying two sawed off shotguns, two nine millimeter handguns,
• 7:23
  Speaker 10: and ninety nine homemade bombs. Some students noticed them, but
• 7:30
  Speaker 10: dismiss it as a typical senior prank. Unaware of the
• 7:34
  Speaker 10: horror that is about to unfold. Eleven nineteen am, on
• 7:41
  Speaker 10: the grass near the West entrance, Rachel Scott and Richard Costaldo,
• 7:46
  Speaker 10: both seventeen, sit quietly eating lunch. Oblivious, they don't see
• 7:52
  Speaker 10: the two boys approaching. A few ten seconds pass, then,
• 7:59
  Speaker 10: without warning, Harris fires. Richard is critically wounded. Rachel is killed,
• 8:09
  Speaker 10: becoming the first victim.
• 8:15
  Speaker 9: Look, I don't care what you say.
• 8:17
  Speaker 10: If you ever touch him again, I will freaking tell
• 8:20
  Speaker 10: you I'm gonna paw.
• 8:21
  Speaker 9: Got haimn shotgun and pull your damn head off. Do
• 8:24
  Speaker 9: you understand?
• 8:27
  Speaker 10: Eric Harris was born in nineteen eighty one in Wichita, Kansas.
• 8:32
  Speaker 10: Because of his father's military career, his family moved often
• 8:36
  Speaker 10: during his childhood before eventually settling in Littleton, Colorado. While
• 8:43
  Speaker 10: the family lived in stable, middle class neighborhoods far from
• 8:47
  Speaker 10: crime or violence, the constant relocations left Harris feeling unsettled.
• 8:56
  Speaker 10: In a home video later recovered by investigators, Harris blamed
• 9:00
  Speaker 10: his father for forcing him to start out at the
• 9:02
  Speaker 10: bottom of the latter each time they moved. At Columbine
• 9:09
  Speaker 10: High School, Harris was often perceived as an outsider. He
• 9:13
  Speaker 10: frequently complained of being harassed or intimidated by athletic students,
• 9:18
  Speaker 10: ah experiences that seemed to fuel his growing resentment toward
• 9:24
  Speaker 10: his peers and the social dynamics around him. By his
• 9:31
  Speaker 10: junior year, classmates observed that he was quick to anger
• 9:35
  Speaker 10: and occasionally made remarks that they found disturbing. Peers also
• 9:42
  Speaker 10: recalled his growing fascination with war, destruction, and power. Investigators
• 9:50
  Speaker 10: later found he kept a notebook where he poured out
• 9:53
  Speaker 10: his anger, writing detailed and aggressive scenarios about people he disliked,
• 9:59
  Speaker 10: passages that, in hindsight, hinted at what he was planning.
• 10:04
  Speaker 10: He also ran a personal website where he openly directed
• 10:08
  Speaker 10: hostility toward members of his school, creating a public record
• 10:12
  Speaker 10: of rage that at the time was not fully understood.
• 10:26
  Speaker 10: Eleven twenty one a m. The attackers moved toward the
• 10:31
  Speaker 10: outdoor staircase on the west side of the school, firing
• 10:35
  Speaker 10: at students as they flee up the hill. Daniel Roorbau
• 10:40
  Speaker 10: is killed and two other students are injured as chaos
• 10:44
  Speaker 10: spreads across the campus.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: Well, he has got a plan to call from my
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: daughter's day.
• 10:50
  Speaker 12: He stass with a gun and hung up the phone,
• 10:52
  Speaker 12: and you could hear the screening in the hallway. We
• 10:56
  Speaker 12: just heard much junfire, saw the versions and saw on
• 10:59
  Speaker 12: the kids running not behind the building. Launchers are what
• 11:01
  Speaker 12: tiding behind the building? And some people said that some
• 11:04
  Speaker 12: people falling down.
• 11:06
  Speaker 10: Eleven two a m. Inside the building, Teacher Dave sanders
• 11:12
  Speaker 10: here's the gunfire and immediately begins directing students to take
• 11:16
  Speaker 10: cover or evacuate. His actions helped many escape as confusion
• 11:22
  Speaker 10: and fear take hold.
• 11:24
  Speaker 12: HI Captain one at shooting at col mine numerous injuries.
• 11:29
  Speaker 12: I have no idea what is going on? Seventy one's
• 11:32
  Speaker 12: under fire right now. Company in a lens covered the
• 11:37
  Speaker 12: shot that is shooting at the school.
• 11:39
  Speaker 10: Dispatchers struggle to understand what is happening, unsure whether the
• 11:44
  Speaker 10: shooter is a student, multiple students, or an outside intruder
• 11:50
  Speaker 10: inside the cafeteria, Fragmented information and rapidly spreading rumors intensify
• 11:56
  Speaker 10: the fear. At approximately eleven four a m. Harris and
• 12:02
  Speaker 10: Claybold enter the school through the west doors. Moving quickly
• 12:07
  Speaker 10: down the hallways, they deploy improvised explosive devices, filling parts
• 12:12
  Speaker 10: of the corridors with smoke and making visibility difficult While
• 12:18
  Speaker 10: guiding students to safety. Teacher Dave Sanders is critically wounded.
• 12:24
  Speaker 10: Despite his injuries, he continues to assist others until he
• 12:28
  Speaker 10: collapses in the hallways. Several students are shot at or
• 12:33
  Speaker 10: injured while escaping, though many manage to get away. Sanders
• 12:39
  Speaker 10: later succumbed to his injuries. By eleven twenty eight, Harris
• 12:45
  Speaker 10: and Cleebold make their way towards the library. Inside, Patty Nelson,
• 12:51
  Speaker 10: an art teacher, and approximately fifty students are hiding beneath
• 12:56
  Speaker 10: tables and behind bookshelves, trying to remain as quiet as possible.
• 13:08
  Speaker 8: Jefferson Penny nine one one yes, I am I did
• 13:11
  Speaker 8: just call tabook.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: There is a student pill of a gun and the
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: toil is in a panic and I'm in the library.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: I've got you're down kids down to the table stain.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: Uh you know, time takes holding.
• 13:29
  Speaker 8: We need to please hear me. Okay, we're getting them there.
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: Please, here's the student. Man, I do not know who
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: the student is.
• 13:35
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: I just want you to stay in the line with me,
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: like we need to know what's going on.
• 13:38
  Speaker 8: Okay, Okay, I am on the floor. Okay, you're got
• 13:42
  Speaker 8: a kid there, right.
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: Can I got any even of the library?
• 13:45
  Speaker 7: On the fly.
• 13:47
  Speaker 8: Is when you can lock the doors. It's not just
• 13:50
  Speaker 8: coming in to knock down on a lot of page.
• 13:52
  Speaker 13: It's a gun.
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: It's right outside the library to look.
• 13:54
  Speaker 8: Okay, okay, we've got help on the way man.
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: Okay, okay, my god, stay on the line.
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: Of plas off.
• 14:02
  Speaker 8: Doing know where he's at. I'm sorry doing know where
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: he at?
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: Okay? Oh, go outside of here, get outside and outside of.
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: The color.
• 14:17
  Speaker 10: Dylan Claybold was born in Lakewood, Colorado, and grew up
• 14:21
  Speaker 10: in a stable, supportive household.
• 14:24
  Speaker 14: In terms of his childhood development, he was a remarkable child,
• 14:28
  Speaker 14: an adorable child, a precocious, clever boy, and he was adored.
• 14:34
  Speaker 14: All the pictures I have of him, he's being hugged.
• 14:36
  Speaker 14: He's on people's laps. This is not a child who
• 14:39
  Speaker 14: was deprived of love.
• 14:42
  Speaker 10: Friends and teachers described him as painfully shy, often fidgety
• 14:47
  Speaker 10: or withdrawn when interacting with new people, and extremely nervous
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: around girls.
• 14:53
  Speaker 14: In his teen years, he got a little more testy
• 14:58
  Speaker 14: and a little bit more you know how teens are.
• 15:01
  Speaker 14: They get more independent, a little more argumentative. But we
• 15:06
  Speaker 14: still enjoyed him. We still did things together, you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 14: went on hikes and watch family movies and all the
• 15:13
  Speaker 14: things that we do with kids, go out for dinner.
• 15:16
  Speaker 10: He and Eric Harris met in nineteen ninety three in
• 15:19
  Speaker 10: middle school and gradually formed a close friendship. By high school,
• 15:25
  Speaker 10: the two were frequently together. Classmates said they often sat
• 15:29
  Speaker 10: alone at lunch and kept to themselves, existing outside the
• 15:33
  Speaker 10: school's social core. In his final year, those around him
• 15:40
  Speaker 10: noticed a significant shift. Dylan became short tempered, prone to
• 15:45
  Speaker 10: sudden bursts of anger, unlike his earlier quiet demeanor.
• 15:50
  Speaker 15: Goddamn piece of punkash shit.
• 15:52
  Speaker 9: Do not master that freaking kid.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: If you do, I'll rip off your goddamn head.
• 16:00
  Speaker 10: Over time, his anger and isolation began to feed into
• 16:04
  Speaker 10: Harris's rage. Each reinforcing the other.
• 16:14
  Speaker 14: Dylan had gotten into trouble in his junior year. He
• 16:18
  Speaker 14: had a cluster of problems. He had been arrested, he
• 16:21
  Speaker 14: had gotten suspended at school for scratching a locker and
• 16:24
  Speaker 14: getting into the computer system. And he was an into
• 16:27
  Speaker 14: version program, and I was concerned. I asked the diversion
• 16:32
  Speaker 14: counselor does he need counseling? What's happening? And Dylan said
• 16:38
  Speaker 14: to us at that time, I don't know what that was,
• 16:41
  Speaker 14: but you know, I promise you I'm going to get
• 16:43
  Speaker 14: my life on track. I am going to do everything
• 16:45
  Speaker 14: I need to do, and.
• 16:47
  Speaker 16: He did so.
• 16:49
  Speaker 14: During the fourteen months that transpired, there was this young
• 16:52
  Speaker 14: man doing everything that he was supposed to do, going
• 16:55
  Speaker 14: to school, holding his job, being part of school plays,
• 16:59
  Speaker 14: going to the from There were no behaviors there that
• 17:02
  Speaker 14: I could see that indicated to me that he was
• 17:05
  Speaker 14: a danger to himself or anyone else.
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: Both boys were part of the school's media and film program,
• 17:12
  Speaker 10: where they made homemade videos that increasingly reflected violent themes.
• 17:20
  Speaker 10: They were strongly influenced by the film Natural Born Killers,
• 17:24
  Speaker 10: often referring to it using the initials NBK, which they
• 17:29
  Speaker 10: later adopted. As a code name for their attack plans.
• 17:34
  Speaker 10: In later reflections, Dylan's mother would say that Harris's intense anger,
• 17:39
  Speaker 10: combined with Dylan's self destructive tendencies created a destructive dynamic. Together,
• 17:49
  Speaker 10: the two fed off one another, accelerating a path neither
• 17:53
  Speaker 10: was able or willing to escape.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: We're black.
• 18:00
  Speaker 12: It looked very lark okay.
• 18:06
  Speaker 8: With got help on the way.
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: Man, Okay, up, they don't want to block up.
• 18:13
  Speaker 8: Do you know where he met? I'm sorry, you don't
• 18:15
  Speaker 8: know where he at?
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: Okay, outside of here, get outside and outside of the call.
• 18:25
  Speaker 10: Eleven nine am. Teacher Patty Nelson remains on the phone
• 18:30
  Speaker 10: with dispatchers, trying to convey what is happening inside the library.
• 18:36
  Speaker 10: For those on the line, the situation is difficult to follow.
• 18:40
  Speaker 10: Shouts and terrified voices come through, but the details are fragmented.
• 18:47
  Speaker 17: The teacher came running in, screaming at us that there
• 18:49
  Speaker 17: were boys outside with guns. To get our heads under
• 18:52
  Speaker 17: the tables and hide, And for just a split second,
• 18:56
  Speaker 17: I took the time to think, there's no way this
• 18:58
  Speaker 17: is really happening, but the panic in her voice made
• 19:03
  Speaker 17: it clear that this was real and we needed to
• 19:06
  Speaker 17: get down and hide.
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: Okay, I pointed to stay in the line with me,
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: like we need to know what's going on.
• 19:10
  Speaker 8: Okay, Okay, I am on the floor. Okay, you got
• 19:14
  Speaker 8: a kid there the library on the floor.
• 19:19
  Speaker 10: A few minutes later, Eric Harris and Dylan Claybold enter
• 19:23
  Speaker 10: the school library.
• 19:25
  Speaker 17: You could hear the first shots coming into the library,
• 19:28
  Speaker 17: and at that moment, I felt like I got punched
• 19:31
  Speaker 17: in the stomach. It was like this rolling feeling across
• 19:34
  Speaker 17: the floor, and I felt so sick to my stomach,
• 19:38
  Speaker 17: and I just started praying, and I just prayed God
• 19:41
  Speaker 17: help us.
• 19:43
  Speaker 10: Dispatchers hear the sound of the attack in real time,
• 19:47
  Speaker 10: but are unable to intervene, forced to listen as events unfold.
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: What's your name, man, Patty?
• 20:10
  Speaker 17: The boys were yelling, shooting, pipe bombs were going off,
• 20:14
  Speaker 17: they were laughing. They were telling us all this was
• 20:17
  Speaker 17: our day to die.
• 20:19
  Speaker 10: This becomes the deadliest and most harrowing phase of the attack.
• 20:24
  Speaker 10: Students are trapped with nowhere left to run. Many hide
• 20:29
  Speaker 10: beneath tables, holding hands, whispering prayers, trying not to be seen.
• 20:36
  Speaker 10: Others lie wounded, pretending to be dead.
• 20:40
  Speaker 17: I turned around behind me on this side to see
• 20:45
  Speaker 17: one of the shooters knelt down, pointing the gun at
• 20:48
  Speaker 17: a boy behind me. He was so close, and I
• 20:52
  Speaker 17: knew that boy didn't have a chair next to him
• 20:55
  Speaker 17: to protect him, so I turned around, plugged my ears,
• 20:58
  Speaker 17: knowing my shot was coming. Next, he killed the boy
• 21:01
  Speaker 17: who was hiding behind me, turn the gun on me,
• 21:04
  Speaker 17: and I remember hearing the shot that hit me, and
• 21:08
  Speaker 17: he was maybe five or six feet behind me.
• 21:12
  Speaker 10: Panic and confusion spread through the room as students struggle
• 21:16
  Speaker 10: to stay out of sight. In the span of minutes,
• 21:21
  Speaker 10: ten students are killed in the library. Many more are injured.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: There's been a terrible shooting at a high school in Lyttleton, Colorado.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Because the situation as I left to come out here
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: apparently is ongoing, I think it would be inappropriate for
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: me to say anything other than I hope the American
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: people who will be praying for the students, the parents,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and the teachers, and we'll wait for events to untrol
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and then there'll be more to say.
• 21:58
  Speaker 10: Eleven thirty am, as the killings go on in the library,
• 22:04
  Speaker 10: police arrive at Columbine High School and begin securing the perimeter.
• 22:10
  Speaker 10: Gunshots from the library are clearly heard and reported from
• 22:14
  Speaker 10: the officers outside, who are.
• 22:16
  Speaker 9: Just tens of meters away.
• 22:20
  Speaker 10: As officers gather information, a student who managed to escape
• 22:25
  Speaker 10: provides a critical detail. He recognizes one of the shooters
• 22:29
  Speaker 10: as a Columbine senior, eighteen year old Eric Harris. At
• 22:36
  Speaker 10: the police station, officers run a background check. The results
• 22:40
  Speaker 10: raise immediate concern. Harris has a prior police record, and
• 22:45
  Speaker 10: within his file appears another name, seventeen year old Dylan Claybold.
• 22:52
  Speaker 10: As more students escape the building, additional accounts begin to
• 22:56
  Speaker 10: confirm the suspicion. What began as uncertainty now sharpens into clarity.
• 23:04
  Speaker 10: The attackers are students known to the school and acting together.
• 23:16
  Speaker 10: As police begin preparing to enter the school, Harris and
• 23:19
  Speaker 10: Claybold make their way back to the cafeteria. Security camera
• 23:26
  Speaker 10: footage later shows them firing at several unattended bags. Eventually,
• 23:33
  Speaker 10: one of the bags, containing a homemade pipe bomb, ignites,
• 23:37
  Speaker 10: setting off a fire that triggers the sprinklers and activates
• 23:41
  Speaker 10: the fire alarm. Students who had been hiding under tables
• 23:47
  Speaker 10: are now forced to run for their lives. Investigators would
• 23:53
  Speaker 10: later discover that these bags contained two large propane bombs
• 23:58
  Speaker 10: intended to explode during the launch period, but the devices
• 24:02
  Speaker 10: fail to detonate as intended. After this final attempt, Harris
• 24:09
  Speaker 10: and Claybold make their way back upstairs to the library,
• 24:14
  Speaker 10: moving into the last phase of their plan. At approximately
• 24:22
  Speaker 10: twelve oh six pm, a SWAT team enters the east side.
• 24:26
  Speaker 9: Of the building, their.
• 24:35
  Speaker 10: Goal moved toward the source of gunfire and neutralizing any
• 24:39
  Speaker 10: perpetrators inside. A second team enters through the ground floor
• 24:46
  Speaker 10: window near the cafeteria, planning to evacuate as many students
• 24:50
  Speaker 10: as possible. As they move cautiously through the hallways, they
• 24:56
  Speaker 10: encounter hundreds of students and teachers who have barricade themselves
• 25:00
  Speaker 10: inside classrooms seeking safety.
• 25:03
  Speaker 12: I think students right off of the lecture area, kay,
• 25:06
  Speaker 12: don't have to stay where they're at, right, I think
• 25:07
  Speaker 12: stay locked down.
• 25:10
  Speaker 10: Officers begin evacuating them, guiding students out in small groups,
• 25:15
  Speaker 10: clearing rooms one by one, and assisting those who need
• 25:18
  Speaker 10: medical attention. The process continues methodically as areas of the
• 25:26
  Speaker 10: school are secured.
• 25:28
  Speaker 11: To get these students to a safer place. So what
• 25:30
  Speaker 11: they are using is police cars, apparently one at a time,
• 25:33
  Speaker 11: and they are putting four or five students in each
• 25:36
  Speaker 11: car at a time, and then they will take them
• 25:38
  Speaker 11: from this area. Here comes another police car, so the
• 25:41
  Speaker 11: shuttle to Freedom is underway.
• 25:45
  Speaker 10: Three two pm. Over three hours later, police finally enter
• 25:52
  Speaker 10: the library. There they encounter a devastating scene marked by
• 25:59
  Speaker 10: the bodies of students and staff.
• 26:01
  Speaker 9: Who were killed or wounded.
• 26:06
  Speaker 10: Officers then find the bodies of Eric Harris and Dylan Claibold,
• 26:12
  Speaker 10: confirming them as the gunmen. Both are heavily armed, surrounded
• 26:18
  Speaker 10: by weapons and explosive devices, and they have died from
• 26:23
  Speaker 10: self inflicted gunshot wounds.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, this is news too, and we are following
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: a breaking store today as shooting at a high school
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: in Littleton, Colorado. It's near Denver. Here is what we
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: know so far. Witnesses say two gunmen dressed in black
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: trench coach with black masks open fired at Columbine High School.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: Investigation into the high school massacre is slow moving and dangerous.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: The two gunmen who went on the rampage booby trapped
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: the building, and even.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: The amid the gunshots and bomb blast, hundreds of students
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: ran for their lives, stalked in their own school by
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: two of their own classmates who went on a rampage.
• 27:12
  Speaker 10: With the gunfire finally silent, the reality of what has
• 27:16
  Speaker 10: happened begins to settle over Columbine News helicopters circle overhead
• 27:23
  Speaker 10: as emergency broadcasts interrupt regular programming.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Two killers belonged to a group of students that named
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: itself the trench Coat Mafia.
• 27:30
  Speaker 16: They wore black trench coats, combat boots, and some were
• 27:33
  Speaker 16: Nazi crosses. The question is why didn't anyone know they
• 27:36
  Speaker 16: turned so violent?
• 27:40
  Speaker 10: Conflicting early reports flood the airwaves, fueling a media frenzy
• 27:45
  Speaker 10: as the nation watches events unfold in real time.
• 27:49
  Speaker 16: The clues were here in Littleton long before the deadly violence.
• 27:52
  Speaker 16: The yearbook pictures with handwritten captions about insanity. This alleged
• 27:57
  Speaker 16: trench Coat Mafia website shut down shortly after ABC News
• 28:01
  Speaker 16: took these pictures. It even had a so called hit
• 28:04
  Speaker 16: list mentioning jocks and one substitute teacher as potential targets.
• 28:12
  Speaker 10: Across the area, parents gather at designated reunification sites, including
• 28:17
  Speaker 10: nearby libraries and community centers.
• 28:20
  Speaker 7: Here at the door of Llewood Elementary School, there's a list,
• 28:24
  Speaker 7: lots of lists on the wall and the door.
• 28:26
  Speaker 9: Here.
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: Up there on the.
• 28:27
  Speaker 12: Wall, you can see all the white papers that have
• 28:29
  Speaker 12: been taped up and posted.
• 28:31
  Speaker 7: Those are lists of names of students and where they are.
• 28:37
  Speaker 10: Many wait for hours, clutching lists of names, searching faces,
• 28:42
  Speaker 10: praying to see their children emerge. For some, that moment
• 28:49
  Speaker 10: never comes.
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: The bodies have not yet been removed. A total of
• 28:57
  Speaker 7: fifteen people are believed to have died here, twelve students,
• 29:00
  Speaker 7: one faculty member, and the two young killers. Investigators say
• 29:04
  Speaker 7: this attack peers who have been carefully planned for a
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: long time.
• 29:10
  Speaker 10: As casualty reports reach families, the focus turns to those
• 29:14
  Speaker 10: left behind, parents whose children did not return, confronted with sudden,
• 29:20
  Speaker 10: unimaginable loss. Survivors later described the aftermath as surreal, the confusion,
• 29:30
  Speaker 10: the silence after the sirens, the weight of realizing who
• 29:34
  Speaker 10: was missing.
• 29:35
  Speaker 9: They were getting.
• 29:36
  Speaker 15: Shot all around me.
• 29:38
  Speaker 12: There was a guy at a table right next to us,
• 29:39
  Speaker 12: the next to me and her, and they just shot
• 29:41
  Speaker 12: him and then walked away, And then he was just
• 29:43
  Speaker 12: sitting at a pool of blood.
• 29:45
  Speaker 9: For shooting anyone of color wearing a.
• 29:47
  Speaker 17: White hat or played a scort, and they didn't care
• 29:51
  Speaker 17: who it was, and it was all at close range.
• 29:55
  Speaker 10: Many struggled to process what they witnessed dealing with anxiety
• 30:00
  Speaker 10: and the reality of what had happened.
• 30:03
  Speaker 15: I will never forget, and I don't think anyone can
• 30:05
  Speaker 15: ever forget that.
• 30:06
  Speaker 16: It's so deeply touched everybody.
• 30:09
  Speaker 18: After everything happened, you say to yourself, do I ever
• 30:12
  Speaker 18: want to teach again?
• 30:13
  Speaker 6: That crosses your mind?
• 30:14
  Speaker 12: Do I ever want to go back?
• 30:17
  Speaker 19: If anyone could ever stand and say it would never
• 30:20
  Speaker 19: happen here, this is the community where that would say that,
• 30:24
  Speaker 19: we're a living proof that it can happen to anyone.
• 30:29
  Speaker 10: In the days that follow, memorials appear almost immediately. Flowers, candles, notes,
• 30:38
  Speaker 10: and crosses line fences and school grounds, transforming everyday spaces
• 30:45
  Speaker 10: into places of mourning. Vigils draw thousands, uniting a grieving
• 30:52
  Speaker 10: community and a grieving nation searching for meaning behind what happened.
• 31:12
  Speaker 10: As investigators began piecing together what had happened, a clearer
• 31:16
  Speaker 10: and more disturbing picture emerged. The attack was not impulsive.
• 31:23
  Speaker 10: Eric Harris and Dylan Claybold had been planning it for months,
• 31:26
  Speaker 10: carefully and deliberately. Long before the morning it unfolded. They
• 31:33
  Speaker 10: acquired weapons, constructed homemade explosives, and mapped out how the
• 31:38
  Speaker 10: violence would unfold.
• 31:41
  Speaker 14: That evidence revealed to me that I had been living
• 31:44
  Speaker 14: in a fantasy world knowing Dylan, knowing what kind of
• 31:48
  Speaker 14: a human being he was, I did not believe he
• 31:51
  Speaker 14: was capable of murdering people on purpose, you know, sort
• 31:55
  Speaker 14: of in my mind. I was thinking maybe this was accidental,
• 31:58
  Speaker 14: or maybe he found himself to it some kind of
• 32:01
  Speaker 14: a prank or a performance and found that he had
• 32:04
  Speaker 14: live ammunition. I mean, I know this sounds so ridiculous,
• 32:07
  Speaker 14: but you have to understand that's what denial is. It
• 32:09
  Speaker 14: protects us.
• 32:12
  Speaker 10: Their preparations went beyond logistics. They rehearsed ideas, tested devices,
• 32:18
  Speaker 10: and documented their thinking in journals, recordings, and videos.
• 32:24
  Speaker 14: When I finally went to the Sheriff's department and I
• 32:27
  Speaker 14: saw their report of what had happened and how it occurred,
• 32:33
  Speaker 14: I was in just a real state of shock. It
• 32:36
  Speaker 14: was completely foreign to anything I expected to hear. I
• 32:42
  Speaker 14: was already making the assumption that he was not responsible
• 32:44
  Speaker 14: for all of these things. So yes, that was a
• 32:47
  Speaker 14: horrible shock, and it really started the grief process all
• 32:49
  Speaker 14: over for me, because the child I'd been grieving for
• 32:53
  Speaker 14: was the perfect one that I had in my mind,
• 32:56
  Speaker 14: and to realize that I had missed all of these things.
• 32:59
  Speaker 14: It's just a horrible shock.
• 33:05
  Speaker 16: Now police have been interviewing the family members of the
• 33:08
  Speaker 16: two teenagers responsible for the shooting. We now know that
• 33:10
  Speaker 16: one of them also posted violent lyrics and recipes for
• 33:14
  Speaker 16: pipe bombs on the Internet, and his final entry in
• 33:17
  Speaker 16: an Aol chat room, which was posted yesterday morning at
• 33:20
  Speaker 16: eight forty one, read today is my last day on Earth.
• 33:26
  Speaker 14: I do know that Dylan was experiencing thoughts of suicidality,
• 33:30
  Speaker 14: and in one of his writings closer to the tragedy
• 33:34
  Speaker 14: and time, he refers to it as is, maybe doing
• 33:37
  Speaker 14: this thing with Eric might be a way to break free.
• 33:40
  Speaker 14: And I think Dylan was planning, wanting to die and
• 33:44
  Speaker 14: wishing that he could die, and I think that Eric
• 33:47
  Speaker 14: gave him a mechanism through which he could do that.
• 33:53
  Speaker 10: Among the most significant discoveries were the so called Basement Tapes,
• 33:58
  Speaker 10: a series of videos Harris and Claybold recorded in the
• 34:01
  Speaker 10: months leading up to the attack. In these recordings, they
• 34:06
  Speaker 10: speak directly to the camera about their plans, their anger,
• 34:11
  Speaker 10: and their worldview. The tapes also revealed that they had
• 34:16
  Speaker 10: intended to take their own lives during the attack, showing
• 34:20
  Speaker 10: that the plan was meant to end in death.
• 34:25
  Speaker 14: It's a difficult thing to try to articulate because I
• 34:27
  Speaker 14: don't want to write off what Dylan did and say
• 34:30
  Speaker 14: he was ill he didn't have a choice, because I
• 34:33
  Speaker 14: don't believe that there was choice involved. But I believe
• 34:36
  Speaker 14: that whatever he was experiencing limited his capacity to work
• 34:42
  Speaker 14: through it, to problem solve, to find ways to help
• 34:45
  Speaker 14: himself through it. And I believe that whatever he experienced
• 34:49
  Speaker 14: over time worsened and worsened, so it was sort of
• 34:52
  Speaker 14: like a cancer that got to stage four. His mental
• 34:56
  Speaker 14: issues reached a stage four situation where he became very lethal,
• 35:01
  Speaker 14: both to others as well as himself. And that's sort
• 35:09
  Speaker 14: of the way I perceive it. I believe that Dylan
• 35:12
  Speaker 14: was a victim of his own pathology, and I believe
• 35:15
  Speaker 14: that Eric was a victim of his own pathology.
• 35:18
  Speaker 10: Good the depth of their preparation exposed a cascade of
• 35:25
  Speaker 10: missed warning signs and demonstrated deeper, untreated mental health issues
• 35:31
  Speaker 10: that shaped their actions and fed into a destructive dynamic
• 35:35
  Speaker 10: between them. May twenty second, nineteen ninety nine, just over
• 35:59
  Speaker 10: a month after the attack, graduation day for the Columbine
• 36:03
  Speaker 10: High School class of nineteen ninety nine arrives. The ceremony
• 36:08
  Speaker 10: is meant to celebrate student's achievements, but the mood is quiet,
• 36:13
  Speaker 10: absences are felt, and the recent events linger in the air,
• 36:18
  Speaker 10: giving the day a bitter sweet tone.
• 36:21
  Speaker 15: Because of what occurred on April twentieth, I am beginning
• 36:26
  Speaker 15: to see what my personal window must reflect. In order
• 36:29
  Speaker 15: to fit into the larger window. I must live life
• 36:34
  Speaker 15: with a concentrated purpose and a dedication to each moment.
• 36:39
  Speaker 15: I must recognize what I have learned, to love deeply,
• 36:45
  Speaker 15: and to appreciate every word and every gesture of every
• 36:49
  Speaker 15: person I love or will love.
• 36:54
  Speaker 10: The events of April twentieth, nineteen ninety nine, left a
• 36:58
  Speaker 10: profound mark on n not only the Columbine community, but
• 37:02
  Speaker 10: the entire nation. Schools across the county began re evaluating
• 37:08
  Speaker 10: safety protocols, introducing lockdown drills, security measures, and new approaches
• 37:15
  Speaker 10: to responding to active shooter situations. The tragedy also prompted
• 37:25
  Speaker 10: widespread public debate, including demonstrations and protests, calling for change
• 37:30
  Speaker 10: to gun laws and greater accountability around firearm access.
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: I think there needs to be change.
• 37:37
  Speaker 15: I think that gun laws need to be put in
• 37:39
  Speaker 15: place so that these things don't happen in innocent lives
• 37:42
  Speaker 15: don't feel lost.
• 37:44
  Speaker 20: Thirteen lives were lost at Columbine, and at the time
• 37:47
  Speaker 20: it was the worst shooting, and in the past five
• 37:49
  Speaker 20: years we've seen more and more terrible shootings that have
• 37:53
  Speaker 20: taken countless lives. And we know that we can do
• 37:57
  Speaker 20: more to stop this violence. We know that there are
• 38:00
  Speaker 20: we can pass that will assess risk before it becomes.
• 38:04
  Speaker 12: A mass day.
• 38:10
  Speaker 17: The PTSD and emotional mental trauma of it has almost
• 38:14
  Speaker 17: been more difficult than the fit physical battle and it
• 38:20
  Speaker 17: affected my everyday life, all day, every day. For years,
• 38:27
  Speaker 17: the PTSD looked like nightmares panic attacks. For any reason.
• 38:33
  Speaker 17: A car backfiring could send me into a panic attack.
• 38:35
  Speaker 17: Somebody wearing all black could just set me off in
• 38:39
  Speaker 17: a panic attack, and it for the first five or
• 38:42
  Speaker 17: ten years, it would be something where I couldn't recover.
• 38:45
  Speaker 17: So if I was at the grocery store and somebody
• 38:48
  Speaker 17: walked in and for whatever reason it sparked a panic
• 38:52
  Speaker 17: attack in me, I had.
• 38:53
  Speaker 16: To leave and go home.
• 38:54
  Speaker 17: The day was ruined. I could not recover in that day.
• 39:01
  Speaker 10: Survivors carry scars that cannot be erased, yet many have
• 39:05
  Speaker 10: found strength in their experiences. They speak publicly, engage in advocacy,
• 39:11
  Speaker 10: and participate in debates over gun control, school safety, and
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: mental health awareness.
• 39:18
  Speaker 9: If there's one thing you want people to know twenty
• 39:21
  Speaker 9: years later, what.
• 39:21
  Speaker 13: Is it What Columbine represents? When I speak to the
• 39:25
  Speaker 13: communities from Parkland and Santa Fe and Sandy Hook, I said,
• 39:29
  Speaker 13: Columbine represents hope. And even though the road's going to
• 39:33
  Speaker 13: be tough, it's going to be a tough journey. You're
• 39:35
  Speaker 13: going to be kicked down, You've got to get back up.
• 39:38
  Speaker 13: And we're all there. We're all part of this club
• 39:41
  Speaker 13: and we could all help each other. But I truly
• 39:43
  Speaker 13: believe that the Columbine community is stronger today than what
• 39:47
  Speaker 13: it was almost twenty years ago, and we provide hope
• 39:50
  Speaker 13: for others.
• 39:53
  Speaker 10: Their resilience has helped turn personal tragedy into a voice
• 39:58
  Speaker 10: for change, even and as the shadow of Columbine inspired
• 40:02
  Speaker 10: other acts of violence that continued to challenge society.
• 40:09
  Speaker 17: News of other shootings in the first few years after
• 40:12
  Speaker 17: Combine would really set me back. I couldn't watch the news.
• 40:17
  Speaker 17: It was really traumatizing. But now it just makes me sad.
• 40:21
  Speaker 17: I mean, it makes everybody sad that it keeps happening.
• 40:25
  Speaker 17: But the way I see it isn't just the way
• 40:29
  Speaker 17: another person who's been unaffected by this season. I know
• 40:32
  Speaker 17: that the journey going forward is going to keep going,
• 40:35
  Speaker 17: and it's not over in two weeks. When the media
• 40:37
  Speaker 17: quits caring about that specific event, these people's lives are
• 40:41
  Speaker 17: changed forever.
• 40:49
  Speaker 10: In February twenty twenty five, Anne Marie Hakhalder, a survivor
• 40:53
  Speaker 10: who sustained life altering injuries in the attack, passed away
• 40:58
  Speaker 10: due to complications related.
• 40:59
  Speaker 9: To her wounds.
• 41:01
  Speaker 18: Anne Marie will be remembered as someone that was a
• 41:04
  Speaker 18: bright light with a lot of inspiration and incredible attitude,
• 41:08
  Speaker 18: and also someone that wasn't afraid to speak her mind
• 41:11
  Speaker 18: about the issues that mattered to her. She lost the
• 41:14
  Speaker 18: ability to walk in the high school shooting, and then
• 41:17
  Speaker 18: her mother died just months after that shooting in nineteen
• 41:20
  Speaker 18: ninety nine, but she truly was someone that touched so
• 41:23
  Speaker 18: many people's lives and was a pillar of strength.
• 41:28
  Speaker 10: Her death marked her as the fourteenth victim of Columbine,
• 41:35
  Speaker 10: a reminder that the consequences of that day extend far
• 41:40
  Speaker 10: beyond the day of the attack.