Sixteen years of Columbine

We're less than two months away from the sixteenth anniversary of 4/20.

Eric and Dylan's youngest victims have been dead longer than they were alive. In a couple of years, the same will be true of Eric, Dylan, and twelve of their victims, as well.

Some of the kids walking around Columbine High School today were born after the attack. In a few years, the same will be true of all of them.

Something to think about...

Less than one month to go now...

If you knew right now that you'd be dead in a month, what would you do?

LPorter101 wrote:

Less than one month to go now...

If you knew right now that you'd be dead in a month, what would you do?

Drive somewhere far away so death can't find me.

As dylan said

'Knowing that you're gonna die, everything has a touch of triviality to it'

But, actually, he was right. Once you set a deadline for your own death, you feel that you don't care anymore as the time approaches.

Quote :

If you knew right now that you'd be dead in a month, what would you do?

I'd spend all my savings for a trip to USA and I'd take a road trip through West Coast.

Today I was watching a lot of old footage of news reports from about 5 months after the shooting until the one year anniversary. I hadn't seen it in a long time and I was stunned by it.  In the footage the shootings were so close and so recent in time and everything about the event was very vivid and fresh. It is so hard for me to believe that 16 years have now passed since this tragedy occurred.

I...really try hard not to think about that.

Bumping this in honor of the Anniversary coming up in a week.

It's certainly a strange time of the year. I always get a bit anxious around now in case anyone is planning a copycat for the anniversary or something.

Radioactive_Clothing wrote:

It's certainly a strange time of the year. I always get a bit anxious around now in case anyone is planning a copycat for the anniversary or something.

same here, but it wouldn´t surprise me...

Five days to go.

They'd already seen their last full Tuesday and their last Wednesday. The 15th was their last Thursday, the 16th their last Friday, the 17th their last Saturday, the 18th their last Sunday, the 19th their last Monday, and the 20th their last day.

It's so long ago now... 16 years since they were planning the attack. 16 years forward is 2031... imagine that.

Dylan wrote this journal entry sixteen years ago today. Wow

"The humanity of here & now clouds all that I see. yet the me, the one, can now control the pain, & it is done. 5 more days. 5....... A very influential number, another brick in my journeyed wall. Humans are zombies, they search for acceptance & greed & kill themselves thru each other. They will never learn, or maybe they will, but wont have the stregth to learn. to be aware is not a trait, its a godlike thing, Blessed God. Not a christian, jesus, mt. sanai, Abraham, David, bible gay shit god, but a true controller of existence.

These moments will be lost in the depressions & caverns of the human books forever, like, tears, in, pain, but the thoughts will be eternal. To explain the happiness is impossible ever for fate. its just a pure halcyon set to last more existences than a conceivable number. stupid gay nigger humans think im "crazy". or they think im childish. hahaha. because i cant solve S sin52xss3xdx. That makes me dumb! Because i cant stay thinking in a 2nd dimension, i go to the 5th! haha. so i wait 5 more days. 5 more days. 5 eternitys. & i know he & i are concieved from ourselves & each other. every night of the self-awareness journey, every thought we concieved, we have finished the race. time to die. everything we knew, we were able to understand it, to percieve it, into what we should, everything we knew, we know & use. an understanding of the everything. An einstein stuck in an ant's body. we are the nature of existence. the zombies were a test to see if our love was genuine. we are in wait of our reward, each other. the zombies will never cause us pain anymore. the humanity was a test. I love you, love. Time to die, time to be free, time to love. "

browneyes11 wrote:

Dylan wrote this journal entry sixteen years ago today. Wow

"The humanity of here & now clouds all that I see. yet the me, the one, can now control the pain, & it is done. 5 more days. 5....... A very influential number, another brick in my journeyed wall. Humans are zombies, they search for acceptance & greed & kill themselves thru each other. They will never learn, or maybe they will, but wont have the stregth to learn. to be aware is not a trait, its a godlike thing, Blessed God. Not a christian, jesus, mt. sanai, Abraham, David, bible gay shit god, but a true controller of existence.

These moments will be lost in the depressions & caverns of the human books forever, like, tears, in, pain, but the thoughts will be eternal. To explain the happiness is impossible ever for fate. its just a pure halcyon set to last more existences than a conceivable number. stupid gay nigger humans think im "crazy". or they think im childish. hahaha. because i cant solve S sin52xss3xdx. That makes me dumb! Because i cant stay thinking in a 2nd dimension, i go to the 5th! haha. so i wait 5 more days. 5 more days. 5 eternitys. & i know he & i are concieved from ourselves & each other. every night of the self-awareness journey, every thought we concieved, we have finished the race. time to die. everything we knew, we were able to understand it, to percieve it, into what we should, everything we knew, we know & use. an understanding of the everything. An einstein stuck in an ant's body. we are the nature of existence. the zombies were a test to see if our love was genuine. we are in wait of our reward, each other. the zombies will never cause us pain anymore. the humanity was a test. I love you, love. Time to die, time to be free, time to love. "

He got "Tears in rain" and "Time to die" from Blade Runner:
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LPorter101 wrote:

browneyes11 wrote:

Dylan wrote this journal entry sixteen years ago today. Wow

"The humanity of here & now clouds all that I see. yet the me, the one, can now control the pain, & it is done. 5 more days. 5....... A very influential number, another brick in my journeyed wall. Humans are zombies, they search for acceptance & greed & kill themselves thru each other. They will never learn, or maybe they will, but wont have the stregth to learn. to be aware is not a trait, its a godlike thing, Blessed God. Not a christian, jesus, mt. sanai, Abraham, David, bible gay shit god, but a true controller of existence.

These moments will be lost in the depressions & caverns of the human books forever, like, tears, in, pain, but the thoughts will be eternal. To explain the happiness is impossible ever for fate. its just a pure halcyon set to last more existences than a conceivable number. stupid gay nigger humans think im "crazy". or they think im childish. hahaha. because i cant solve S sin52xss3xdx. That makes me dumb! Because i cant stay thinking in a 2nd dimension, i go to the 5th! haha. so i wait 5 more days. 5 more days. 5 eternitys. & i know he & i are concieved from ourselves & each other. every night of the self-awareness journey, every thought we concieved, we have finished the race. time to die. everything we knew, we were able to understand it, to percieve it, into what we should, everything we knew, we know & use. an understanding of the everything. An einstein stuck in an ant's body. we are the nature of existence. the zombies were a test to see if our love was genuine. we are in wait of our reward, each other. the zombies will never cause us pain anymore. the humanity was a test. I love you, love. Time to die, time to be free, time to love. "

He got "Tears in rain" and "Time to die" from Blade Runner:
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Ah Dylan....ever the drama queen....

On this day (April 17) in 1999, most Columbine seniors went to the prom.

Eric Harris didn't. He stayed home with Susan DeWitt and watched Event Horizon.

He did go to the after-prom party, though.

LPorter101 wrote:

On this day (April 17) in 1999, most Columbine seniors went to the prom.

Eric Harris didn't. He stayed home with Susan DeWitt and watched Event Horizon.

He did go to the after-prom party, though.

What a shame one of the last movies Eric watched was so shitty. But I doubt he was focused very much on watching the film. He was probably thinking about doing some of the animalistic stuff to her that he wrote about in his journal.

SodaCanHalfwayOpen wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

On this day (April 17) in 1999, most Columbine seniors went to the prom.

Eric Harris didn't. He stayed home with Susan DeWitt and watched Event Horizon.

He did go to the after-prom party, though.

What a shame one of the last movies Eric watched was so shitty. But I doubt he was focused very much on watching the film. He was probably thinking about doing some of the animalistic stuff to her that he wrote about in his journal.

Event Horizon is a geek-boy movie. Maybe he thought she'd be so bored by it that she'd pay more attention to him.

Right now, it is around 5:45 p.m. Mountain time (7:45 p.m. Eastern) on the 17th. Around this time sixteen years ago, lots of Columbine kids were getting ready to go to the prom. (What time did it start? Does anyone know?) And Eric Harris was getting ready to watch a movie with Susan DeWitt.

Okay, here's something from another site:

Quote :

Dylan rode to prom in a limo with Nate Dykeman, Kristi Epling, Robyn Anderson, Jessica Hughes, Kelly Brown, Janna and Monica. Everyone met at Kelly’s house but Jessica, Janna and their dates. Their limo went to Kelly’s house, then Janna’s house, then Jessica’s house. Around 7:45 p.m. they were all dropped off at Bella’s, which is an Italian restaurant in downtown Denver. Dylan and Nate had a smoke outside while Dylan talked about his recent trip to Arizona to pick out his dorm room.

Around 10:15 p.m. they were dropped off at the Denver Design Center, where prom was being held. Nate hung out with his girlfriend, Christy, and his friend Tim Kastle. At midnight when the dance was over, they dropped Jessica and Janna off at their respective houses and then the rest of them were dropped off at Kelly’s house. They headed off to the After Prom Party at Columbine High School that lasted from midnight until 5:00 a.m.

Dylan and Robyn drove to the after prom party in her car- a 2 door light blue honda.

Dylan and Robyn spent some of their time at the Black Jack tables. Nate didn’t see Eric or Dylan after 2:00 a.m. and ended up spending the remainder of the night with his girlfriend and Tim Kastle, occasionally mingling with Chris Morris and his date, Nicole.

Nate, Christy, Alyssa Sechler and her boyfriend Derek Malin (whom she later married and divorced) went to Denny’s after they left the party.

After they ate, Christy and Nate went up to the mountains to watch the sun rise. They stopped by Dylan’s house on the way and Nate pointed it out to Christy.

Meanwhile, Mark Manes had purchased the last bit of 9mm ammunition from K-Mart that night at 8:08 p.m. as Eric had asked him to do.

So Dylan got to the prom around 10:15, then left around midnight. (Are proms that short - less than two hours? I didn't go to mine, so I wouldn't know.)

LPorter101 wrote:

SodaCanHalfwayOpen wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

On this day (April 17) in 1999, most Columbine seniors went to the prom.

Eric Harris didn't. He stayed home with Susan DeWitt and watched Event Horizon.

He did go to the after-prom party, though.

What a shame one of the last movies Eric watched was so shitty. But I doubt he was focused very much on watching the film. He was probably thinking about doing some of the animalistic stuff to her that he wrote about in his journal.

Event Horizon is a geek-boy movie. Maybe he thought she'd be so bored by it that she'd pay more attention to him.

Great point

It's 11:50 a.m. Mountain time on the 19th.

At this moment 16 years ago, 15 people had about 24 hours to live.

I spent a couple of hours walking this afternoon and a lot of my thoughts were about Columbine. It's quite hard to try and comprehend what this time of year must be like for the families.

The last few days I've been thinking a lot about what it was like when E &D and the victims were all babies and children. Their parents must have had such hope and dreams for their futures. as all parents who love their children do.
Then to have it all end so tragically. Looking back on their children's baby and childhood years must be so bittersweet for all 15 sets of parents.

It's nearly midnight here on the east coast, USA. I wonder what Eric and Dylan were doing this time 16 years ago? I wonder if they got any sleep that night?

Another mystery that we will never know. I've often wondered about their last night as I know many others have . I doubt they got much if any sleep. Eric was known to be up at 2 am recording the "Nixon" tape. No matter how you feel about your impeding death, it still must be hard to lie down and sleep the night before you know for certain you will die. I don't see how anybody could although I'm sure there are people who have.

Mason wrote:

It's nearly midnight here on the east coast, USA. I wonder what Eric and Dylan were doing this time 16 years ago? I wonder if they got any sleep that night?

I'm from Spain, and some minutes ago a high school student went to his school with a crossbow. He killed a teacher and injured four students, but the info isn't too accurate yet.

It's the first time something like this happen in my country, two years ago police stopped a guy who was planning on bombing an university campus trying to recreate Columbine

Mason wrote:

It's nearly midnight here on the east coast, USA. I wonder what Eric and Dylan were doing this time 16 years ago? I wonder if they got any sleep that night?

This could one of the reason why they lost interest in killing people after a few minutes. As Dylan mentioned and wrote before a massacre it was nerve wracking so on the day of their 'glory' they were simply exhausted. I doubt that they had a good sleep a few weeks before 20th as well.

Right now, it's 12:02 p.m. Mountain.

By now, Eric and Dylan had shot everyone they were ever going to shoot, aside from themselves. Within six minutes, they would both be dead.

It's 12:08 p.m. Mountain time. Eric is dead; Dylan is dying.

Dave Sanders will spend the next few hours fighting for his life.

It's 12:11. Dylan is likely dead by now.

May they and their families be at peace.

It's 1:49. Dave Sanders is still alive, bleeding to death. The cops won't get to him until 3. He'll die in the ambulance.

I often feel Dave's death is a bit overlooked. He was a true hero trying to get the kids out the cafeteria to safety.

I'm not saying nobody acknowledges the fact he was extremely brave and suffered for too long before any sort of help got to him, but imagine being led there for so long knowing medical staff were outside but not assisting you.

I wonder if it felt as long as it was, or possibly even worse? I broke my elbow and fractured my arm last year and didn't get looked at for an hour and it felt like many hours - I fear Dave's final few hours felt like way too long.

LPorter101 wrote:

It's 1:49. Dave Sanders is still alive, bleeding to death. The cops won't get to him until 3. He'll die in the ambulance.

Yeah. I've always been very unimpressed with the "speed' of the emergency services. I am not saying who is to blame exactly (perhaps its not the doctors, perhaps the police and sheriff's ofice held them back until "coast as conirmed clear") but someone certainly took far too long to respond after the shots stopped.

I'm sure lives could ahve been saved. Dave for one. But perhaps also people like Lauren Townsend. Perhaps others would not have to suffer as bad as they did had anyone helped them sooner.

Even Hochhalter who was shot outside and then dragged to safety by another student, was lying for 45 minutes in the heat, being shot in the lungs, spine and liver, drowning slowly inher own blood. The paramedis reached her only around the same time that Eric and Dylan were commiting suicide. And she was aleady outside and in a safe zone.

It's 3:34 ... by now, the cops have found Eric, Dylan, and their victims dead in the library.

Dave Sanders DIED in Columbine


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According to the Final Report:

Around 2:40 p.m., the SWAT team entered Room UA-24 first, then proceeded to adjoining classrooms where they found about 30 students hiding behind tables they had set on end as barricades.   Two of the students were helping a teacher who had been shot and was bleeding. Realizing the severity of the man’s wounds, the SWAT team immediately called for a paramedic.  

   Two Littleton paramedics, with medical equipment and a gurney, were staged and waiting for the signal to enter the school at the east doors.  Because the hallway and classrooms leading to the science area had not been secured and it was considered too dangerous to send the paramedics in from that entrance,  Williams continued to ask for a paramedic on the west side.  The route on the west side through the cafeteria and up the stairs had been cleared and remained protected by Denver SWAT.  

   The students and teachers in the science rooms with Sanders were evacuated.  Two Eagle Scouts, Aaron Hancey and Kevin Starkey, had administered first aid to Sanders and were reluctant to leave the teacher behind.  While one SWAT officer led the evacuation, a second stayed with Sanders, never leaving his side, talking with him and applying pressure bandages to his wounds until the other officer came back.  

   The people evacuated from the science rooms were first sent down the stairway to the landing, where they were grouped together on the landing until SWAT could confirm the safety of the evacuation route.  The students and staff were then moved from the landing through the cafeteria and out the side door.  Throughout this process, the location of the gunmen was unknown.  

   While the world cheered as they watched television images of children escaping unharmed from the school, the two SWAT deputies with Sanders decided to move him closer to an exit route.  After waiting for what they estimated to be 20 to 30 minutes, they decided a paramedic was not coming or could not get in, and that they would need to evacuate the wounded teacher themselves or at least move him closer to an exit.    

   Their plan was to take him out a door over to the staircase, down the stairs through the cafeteria and out the side door, basically following the same route as the students just evacuated. They put Sanders on a chair so that they could move him easier and pushed him through the back doors of the science rooms into a storage area.  Before they could move him from the storage room, a Denver paramedic arrived in the room.  He had entered through the west side of the school and past SWAT where he was directed to Sanders. He advised the deputies that there was no pulse and, therefore, nothing more they could do.  Dave Sanders had died.

Unfortunately, I think Dave did suffer somewhat. I'm not sure if it was the whole time or if he finally went "numb". I don't believe Lauren did. She was hit by more than one bullet at once so she must have went unconscious and died in a few seconds. I know her family takes some comfort in this.

Thank you LPorter for your posts recounting the steps of the tragedy as they would have been happening on the day. I always appreciated that.

PaintItBlack wrote:

Thank you LPorter for your posts recounting the steps of the tragedy as they would have been happening on the day. I always appreciated that.

You're welcome.

One year I did minute by minute for the whole day. I couldn't do that this year, but I wanted to do something.

It's 5:23 p.m. on the 21st ... by now, the bodies have been taken from the library.