Image Credit: Seraphimblade, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Saul Roth
On April 20, 1999 a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado. The event has been ranked as one of the most devastating attacks against U S schools.
The twelfth grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 people in the school library before killing themselves.
Harris and Klebold’s plan was foiled when their homemade bombs failed to detonate. The duo then launched a shooting attack on the school.
Police officers were heavily criticized for not entering the school and allowing a shooting to take place.
The pair’s intention was to kill hundreds, possibly thousands of people. They planned on exploding propane bombs in the cafeteria at lunchtime and then shooting those who survived or attempted to escape after that point — stabbing them if need be before leaving several shooter videos for each victim explaining their crimes against humanity.
On Tuesday morning, April 20th 1999 Harris and Klebold brought two duffel bags into the school. Each bag contained propane bombs set to detonate during “A” lunch shift which began at 11:15am. In addition they left a note on one of their desks saying “For me” or something along those lines.
In a statement, teenager Rachel Scott was sitting on the grass next to her friend Richard Castaldo when they were both injured by bombs thrown from suspect Eric Harris.
When the gunmen walked into the library, they headed straight for two rows of computers. Sitting at North Row was disabled student Kyle Velasquez who had his back turned. A shotgun blast hit him dead center. Harris and Klebold left the library to find some places they could shoot people from. They went into an empty storage closet, where a fire started by them was quickly put out with the help of one of the teachers who happened upon their location.
Harris sat down with his back to a bookshelf and fired through the roof of his mouth, while Klebold went down on both knees before shooting himself in the left temple using a TEC-9 semi-automatic pistol.
The FBI recently revealed that the killers of Columbine High School suffered from mental illness. Harris was diagnosed as a clinical psychopath, and Klebold had depression.
The blame for this tragedy was placed on violent video games. Several lawsuits against game manufacturers were filed, but none were successful in court.
Following the Columbine shooting, schools across America implemented new security measures such as see-through backpacks and metal detectors. Some also required students to wear computer generated ID badges or uniforms so they could be easily identified by teachers if needed during an emergency situation.
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