Where were you on 4/20/1999?

I don't remember it, I was a little kid. I do remember 9/11, Parkland, Sandyhook, and especially Aurora. I'm curious as to what others experienced.

I was in eighth grade.

I first heard about the shooting around four in the afternoon my time, two Colorado time. I walked into the library and saw news footage of the school on CNN. From the get-go, I was fascinated. I was glued to the TV for days. I read every newspaper and magazine article about NBK that I could find.

I was a senior in high school. My mom had the news on when I got home. And I remember watching just has Patrick Ireland was falling out of the window.

I was in college,working in a photo shop; old school film developing. (Interesting side note, we developed pics for the police department, so we saw some stuff come through there!) I worked in the back, actually developing the pictures. Some of the front counter girls must have had a radio on, because they said there was a horrible shooting going on. I distinctly remember them saying, “and it’s on Hitler’s birthday!” So I know that was thrown out on the first day. When I got home after work, and turned on the news, I saw their pictures, and I thought, “But he (Eric) is too cute to do that!” And then honestly, I forgot about it for 20 years, despite my interest in true crime and disasters. Then, a while back, I saw Sue’s Ted Talk, and decided to investigate further. Rabbit hole!!!!

In the void (AKA not born)

I was a senior in high school myself, in a small southwestern Indiana town. Heard about it when I got home from school that day. My mom had the small TV on in ther kitchen and I watched the news while I ate a snack and got ready for my part time after school job. It scared the hell out of me, that 2 kids my own age shot up their school. I was never worried about violence and shootings at my school before, but that all changed on 4/20.

I was born in january 2000 so obviously i was nowhere physically that day but its funny that if you calculate 9 months back from january 2000 it comes to april of 1999 so technically i could have been made on 4/20 of that year , just as it happened.

LadyStardust wrote:

I was in college,working in a photo shop; old school film developing. (Interesting side note, we developed pics for the police department, so we saw some stuff come through there!) I worked in the back, actually developing the pictures. Some of the front counter girls must have had a radio on, because they said there was a horrible shooting going on. I distinctly remember them saying, “and it’s on Hitler’s birthday!” So I know that was thrown out on the first day. When I got home after work, and turned on the news, I saw their pictures, and I thought, “But he (Eric) is too cute to do that!” And then honestly, I forgot about it for 20 years, despite my interest in true crime and disasters. Then, a while back, I saw Sue’s Ted Talk, and decided to investigate further. Rabbit hole!!!!

Same here.
I was 13 and saw some footage on TV, thought they looked like my friends at that time, and thought they couldn't have done it.
Forgot about it after that and got sucked in a while back when youtube suggested the TED talk video of Sue.
I don't know why but i was immediately drawn to it..

High school freshman. I live in the Eastern Time Zone so I believe it had to be very close to the end of the school day.

Surely opening my presents and eating my birthday cake with my parents ans grands parents, celebrating my 3rd birthday, I always lived in France and when it happened, it was like... 4 or 5pm in France, so time for afternoon snack xD

I was at primary school I guess.

Not even born.

I was a 7 and a half year old kid, probably having an evening snack at my grandma's or doing my homework. Since I'm fascinated with these kinds of parallels, sometimes I want to pathologically find out the exact moment where I was at that time, but that's impossible!

It's really disturbing how the most innocent and the most horrible things can be happening at the same time.

I was a senior in high school, too, and I was home sick that day. I had the news on as background noise while I was laying on the couch surrounded by tea, tissues, and cough drops and remember yelling for my mom to come see what was happening. It must have been really early on, because they were talking about the possibility that they were still shooting, and how the school was booby-trapped. I remember seeing Parick Ireland coming out the window, and I remember the first time they showed pictures of Eric and Dylan. There was one kid interviewed at some point who had on a white t-shirt and it looked like there was blood on it, talking about how E&D would cheer after they shot someone. Weird, I hadn't thought about that probably in two decades.

I was 18 at that time and I was in my last year of High School

adastra wrote:

There was one kid interviewed at some point who had on a white t-shirt and it looked like there was blood on it, talking about how E&D would cheer after they shot someone. Weird, I hadn't thought about that probably in two decades.

That was Brian Anderson. He was near Patti Nielson in the hall when Eric shot through the glass doors and he was hit, presumably by glass and shrapnel. Luckily, the wounds were superficial. He ran to the library with Patti and hid in the magazine room.

I was at home. Long out of school by then and was off work that day. I turned on the news by chance and saw the footage.

Active duty in the Army, just got transferred to Ft. Drum from Schoffield, remember being glued to the TV for a day or two.

Fun fact, I was sitting in that same chair and watching the same TV when 9/11 happened.

Probably getting warp, womped, and wired someplace comparable to heaven.

I was 14 and in secondary school. I think I actually first heard the news on 21st April, due to the time difference between Spain and the States. At fisrt, it shocked me a lot, to think two boys only a few years older than me could have perpetrated such a horrible thing. After a few days, I forgot the case very quickly and for some reason (even when I vaguely remember seeing that Michael Moore documentary 2 or 3 years later), it didn’t attract my interest again until many years later.

1st grade, Ms Wynn's class.

I don't remember much, but I was 6 years old and probably in 1st grade.

thelmar wrote:

adastra wrote:

There was one kid interviewed at some point who had on a white t-shirt and it looked like there was blood on it, talking about how E&D would cheer after they shot someone. Weird, I hadn't thought about that probably in two decades.

That was Brian Anderson. He was near Patti Nielson in the hall when Eric shot through the glass doors and he was hit, presumably by glass and shrapnel. Luckily, the wounds were superficial. He ran to the library with Patti and hid in the magazine room.

Ahhh, nice, thanks for making that connection! For some reason, my brain did not

I was sitting in class at Normandy Elementary not too far away from Columbine.

milennialrebelette wrote:

I was sitting in class at Normandy Elementary not too far away from Columbine.

Wow, this is really close!
Can you please give us more information, what was the feeling?

I was in ninth grade. I live in Germany and remember that a short television report about Columbine was broadcast in the evening. Three years later (on April 26, 2002) there was the first school shooting in Germany

Gonz wrote:

adastra wrote:

thelmar wrote:

adastra wrote:

There was one kid interviewed at some point who had on a white t-shirt and it looked like there was blood on it, talking about how E&D would cheer after they shot someone. Weird, I hadn't thought about that probably in two decades.

That was Brian Anderson. He was near Patti Nielson in the hall when Eric shot through the glass doors and he was hit, presumably by glass and shrapnel. Luckily, the wounds were superficial. He ran to the library with Patti and hid in the magazine room.

Ahhh, nice, thanks for making that connection! For some reason, my brain did not

Wow, nice find. Seeing that again really unsettled me. That day was probably one of the extremely few times I can recall seeing him on the news back then. It's still weird to watch. Like this happened over 20 years ago yet we can watch the news from that day as though it's still happening now. Side-observation, but was weird seeing the clip again.

I was a sperm cell.
I can sure as hell remember when i was in 5th grade and Sandy Hook happened though. Everyone was talking about that

Hi, I'm new here, but I've been a longtime lurker on this and the old SCMRPG/SBB board.

I remember it clearly. I had graduated the year before, and me and some friends were drinking tequila shots and watching the live coverage on TV. We watched Patrick Ireland fall out the window as it happened.

I guess I got so into it because I basically WAS Eric and Dylan. I was bullied, but I personally believe the bullying of E&D was overstated as far as the reason why it happened goes. They were like me - they had friends, but they were misfits and got shit on by the rich-kid jocks. I was a punk rock kid who hung with the other outcasts. For me, Columbine was basically the defining event of my generation - the last kids of Generation X. I've even corrected Peter Langman on some of the references he didn't get. I didn't get into deep researching until years later when I discovered the 11K and all that.

milennialrebelette wrote:

I was sitting in class at Normandy Elementary not too far away from Columbine.

Onyx wrote:

Wow, this is really close!  
Can you please give us more information, what was the feeling?

We were on a lockdown.  I remember a friend in front of me in the lunch line claiming it was because of  tornados, which made sense. it had been a  beautiful Front Range Colorado spring day but dark clouds were forming from the east and there was just an overall weird feeling in the air, like I remember feeling on days with possibly tornadoes and huge violent thunderstorms. After lunch, which our grade had the earliest the entire school, we went back to homeroom. By then teachers were crying. We were told something was happening at the high school (Columbine) and our parents were coming to pick us up and everything would be okay.

I was the only one in my class with siblings at Columbine since they were older half siblings. Maybe a handful of loss my age and younger did, more in grades 4-6. We were so young  and innocent we couldnt imagine it was something bad. Throughout  the day kids were picked up I was one of the last. My mom hugged me crying and I remember my teacher and my mom speaking in hushed tones and crying and hugging each other before we left.

In the car my mon tried to compose herself she said something really bad had happened at Lindsay and Anthony's school and some of the kids at their school were hurt but not to work my brother and  sister were fine we just had to go get them. There were lots of cars I remember being stopped more than the car moving. We got to another school, which I later learned was Leawood, with lots of crying parents and big kids my siblings age crying. We kept running into people from church who would hug my mom and pray. One of those was a man I recognized as Mr. Mauser. I remember being very confused. A couple of my moms friends I recognized and some I didnt grabbed me and gave me hugs. Eventually we left I heard later that my  mo  saw some of my Anthony's friends saw him leave the school okay.

We finally went home. I think my brother came home before my sister but I'm not sure. The TV was on and the aults were all sitting around in silence. I could hear sirens going up and down the main road (Pierce) My auntie told me to go upstairs and play. There was so much crying. When my sister came home she grabbed my mom and kept sobbing "Rach is dead oh my god mommy, Rach is dead." She grabbed me and hugged me harder than she ever had before. Eventually my sibling's step mom took me upstairs to bed. Their dad and her and my auntie and uncle and one of my cousins had all showed up and were all downstairs together

There was lots of noise downstairs but I was more fascinated with the house with all  its lights on with police cars outside and police inside and big trucks parked outside, news trucks perhaps looking back, I could see.. My bedroom was on the back side of our house and we lived caddy corner to the Harrises. I  had no idea what was going on until later or that it was "Auntie Kathy's house" or her son was the one who hurt all the other kids, who killed Rachel.

That night after I fell asleep my sister crawled into my bed. I had a giant stuffed Pig named Pua which was a childish version of the Hawaiian word for pig. I couldn't sleep without him. I really couldn't sleep, but kept dosing off, I dont remember this but my sister said I told her tonight Pua would let her sleep with me instead. I do remember waking up as my sister crawled into my bed crying and kissing my head, in my room that was bright all night from all the lights the police had, and all the flash red and blue lights.

.

milennialrebelette wrote:

Onyx wrote:

milennialrebelette wrote:

I was sitting in class at Normandy Elementary not too far away from Columbine.

Wow, this is really close!  
Can you please give us more information, what was the feeling?

We were on a lockdown.  I remember  a friend in front of me in the lunch line claiming it was because of  tornados it had been a  beautiful Front Range Colorado spring day but dark clouds were forming from the east. After lunch which our grade had the earliest the entire school went back to homeroom. By then teachers  were crying. We were told something  was happening at Columbine  and our parents were  coming to pick  us up.

I was  the only one in my class with siblings at Columbine since they were older half siblings. Maybe a handful of loss my age and younger did, more in grades 4-6. We were so young  and innocent we couldnt imagine it was something bad. Throughout  the day kids were picked up I was one of the last. My mom hugged me crying and I remember my teacher and my mom speaking in hushed tones and crying and hugging each other before we left.

In the car my mon tried to compose herself she said something really bad had happened at Lindsay and Anthony's school and some of the kids at their school were hurt but not to work my brother and  sister were fine we just had to go get them. There were lots of cars I remember being stopped more than the car moving. We got to another school, which I later learned was Leawood, with lots of crying parents and big kids my siblings age crying. We kept running into  people from church who would hug my mom and pray. One of those was a man I recognized as Mr. Mauser. I remember being very confused. A  couple of my moms friends I recognized and some I didnt grabbed me and gave me hugs. Eventually we left I heard later that my  mon saw some of my siblings friends saw them leave the school okay.

We finall went home. I think my brother came home before my sister but I'm not sure. There  was so much crying. When my sister came home she grabbed my mom and kept sobbing "Rach is dead oh my god mommy, Rach is dead." She grabbed me and hugged me harder than  she ever had before. Eventually my siblings step mom took  me upstairs to bed. Their dad and her and my auntie and uncle and one of my cousins had all showed up

There was lots of noise downstairs but I was more fascinated with the  house with all  its lights on with police cars outside and police inside and big trucks parked outside, news trucks perhaps looking back. My bedroom was on the back  side of our house and we lived caddy corner to the Harrises. I  had no idea what was going on until later.

That night after I fell asleep my sister crawled into my bed. I  had a giant stuffed Pig named Pua which was a childish version of the Hawaiian word for pig. I couldn't sleep without him. I dont remember this but my sister said I told her tonight Pua would let her sleep with me instead.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I hope that you have learned at least something positive from that horrible experience and that you are now a stronger person!

I was a 6 month old toddler (born 25/10/98) and was probably sleeping in my crib in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Before you ask, no I'm not Arab but my parents moved here after CCCP collapsed in search of opportunities. It was a rapidly expanding city back then but since the 08' crisis it has never been the same.

Onyx wrote:

milennialrebelette wrote:

Onyx wrote:

milennialrebelette wrote:

I was sitting in class at Normandy Elementary not too far away from Columbine.

Wow, this is really close!  
Can you please give us more information, what was the feeling?

We were on a lockdown.  I remember  a friend in front of me in the lunch line claiming it was because of  tornados it had been a  beautiful Front Range Colorado spring day but dark clouds were forming from the east. After lunch which our grade had the earliest the entire school went back to homeroom. By then teachers  were crying. We were told something  was happening at Columbine  and our parents were  coming to pick  us up.

I was  the only one in my class with siblings at Columbine since they were older half siblings. Maybe a handful of loss my age and younger did, more in grades 4-6. We were so young  and innocent we couldnt imagine it was something bad. Throughout  the day kids were picked up I was one of the last. My mom hugged me crying and I remember my teacher and my mom speaking in hushed tones and crying and hugging each other before we left.

In the car my mon tried to compose herself she said something really bad had happened at Lindsay and Anthony's school and some of the kids at their school were hurt but not to work my brother and  sister were fine we just had to go get them. There were lots of cars I remember being stopped more than the car moving. We got to another school, which I later learned was Leawood, with lots of crying parents and big kids my siblings age crying. We kept running into  people from church who would hug my mom and pray. One of those was a man I recognized as Mr. Mauser. I remember being very confused. A  couple of my moms friends I recognized and some I didnt grabbed me and gave me hugs. Eventually we left I heard later that my  mon saw some of my siblings friends saw them leave the school okay.

We finall went home. I think my brother came home before my sister but I'm not sure. There  was so much crying. When my sister came home she grabbed my mom and kept sobbing "Rach is dead oh my god mommy, Rach is dead." She grabbed me and hugged me harder than  she ever had before. Eventually my siblings step mom took  me upstairs to bed. Their dad and her and my auntie and uncle and one of my cousins had all showed up

There was lots of noise downstairs but I was more fascinated with the  house with all  its lights on with police cars outside and police inside and big trucks parked outside, news trucks perhaps looking back. My bedroom was on the back  side of our house and we lived caddy corner to the Harrises. I  had no idea what was going on until later.

That night after I fell asleep my sister crawled into my bed. I  had a giant stuffed Pig named Pua which was a childish version of the Hawaiian word for pig. I couldn't sleep without him. I dont remember this but my sister said I told her tonight Pua would let her sleep with me instead.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I hope that you have learned at least something positive from that horrible experience and that you are now a stronger person!  

Of course I mean I wasn't quite 8 years old so honestly it didn't do much for me. I already had a pretty traumatic family life so in my child's view of the world all the crying and emotion and ups and downs seemed a lot like that.

My sister on the other hand... it definitely was significant to her. She likes to think she became a better person but she said she became worse before she became better. It was my going to Columbine 10 years later, my sister's sobriety and getting married and having a family and this experience that really connected us as much as we are though. Otherwise I don't think we would be nearly as close with her so much older than me.

Take care!

7th grade. I remember coming home from school and my mother had the news on the TV and the infamous scene of the students running out of the school was playing.
I remember thinking to myself "a shooting at a school?" because that was the first time I really heard about school shootings at that point.
I guess in my young naive mind I pictured someone coming off the street and shooting up the school, not two students.
I didn't think much more of it, but little did I know many many years later this particular shooting would be something that I'd spend many hours reading books and researching!

I was in school.

I imagine I was sitting in my first grade class.

Here is a pic of me that year, and a pic of the 1999 class from the school I attended. Gives you an idea of how small my school was when compared to the Columbine 1999 senior group picture.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Probably in school (1st grade) I don't really remember.
I do have a vivid memory of being at soccer practice 4 days later (I only know the exact day because it was picture day and the date is stamped on the back of the pictures)
All the parents were standing off to the side holding our jackets and talking about Columbine. It absolutely blew my mind that Tom Klebold was from my little hometown and that people I knew had known the Klebold family.

I likely would have been at school. I was in elementary school then. Second grade I believe. I don't remember hearing about it back then, I know it was heavily reported on for a while after it but I just don't remember hearing about it right when it happened. It was twenty one years ago after all

10 months old, so either napping in my crib or shitting myself.

I was in 7th grade. I shared interests with Eric and Dylan and looked like I would have fit right in with them. Our school developed a zero tolerance policy after Columbine and I was reported for having a hit list (I did not). I almost got expelled and it was scary and horrifying and felt like a witch hunt. Dumb ass kids also figured out that if they called in bomb threats the school would close, so it felt like every other week a threat would be called in so kids could skip school.

A little over a year ago I started actively researching the case.

properground wrote:

I don't remember it, I was a little kid. I do remember 9/11, Parkland, Sandyhook, and especially Aurora. I'm curious as to what others experienced.

In school. Actually watched the news coverage as I had a class near the art rooms that permanently had one of the A/V TV carts in it. We had recently switched to 1.5hr classes and most teachers were utterly unprepared for it, almost all of them ended classes with a long study hall type period. So this one kid usually flipped around to like MTV or the news on that TV and he called a couple of us over.

For 9/11 I also happened to be right at a TV ready to take it in. I was taking some time off after traveling and was watching a good amount of TV because I hadn't watched any at all for months.

By the time Aurora happened the world was different and live TV for anything besides sports was a thing of the past for me. Anything I wanted to watch I would DVR and skip through commercials, so I would have never seen anything on TV about that, Sandy Hook, or Parkland. I felt late to those because so many more people followed them as they happened online.
Not very many followed Columbine on TV at all, it seems from someplace like this that so many people did but really its just the people gathered here that did.
9/11 too everyone goes back and looks at the footage and feels like they watched it live.. but they really didn't unless they had a 24 hour news channel on at the time or maybe a local channel that cut to a breaking news team.

AestheticDeath wrote:

properground wrote:

I don't remember it, I was a little kid. I do remember 9/11, Parkland, Sandyhook, and especially Aurora. I'm curious as to what others experienced.

In school. Actually watched the news coverage as I had a class near the art rooms that permanently had one of the A/V TV carts in it.  We had recently switched to 1.5hr classes and most teachers were utterly unprepared for it, almost all of them ended classes with a long study hall type period. So this one kid usually flipped around to like MTV or the news on that TV and he called a couple of us over.

For 9/11 I also happened to be right at a TV ready to take it in. I was taking some time off after traveling and was watching a good amount of TV because I hadn't watched any at all for months.

By the time Aurora happened the world was different and live TV for anything besides sports was a thing of the past for me. Anything I wanted to watch I would DVR and skip through commercials, so I would have never seen anything on TV about that, Sandy Hook, or Parkland. I felt late to those because so many more people followed them as they happened online.
Not very many followed Columbine on TV at all, it seems from someplace like this that so many people did but really its just the people gathered here that did.
9/11 too everyone goes back and looks at the footage and feels like they watched it live.. but they really didn't unless they had a  24 hour news channel on at the time or maybe a local channel that cut to a breaking news team.

Aurora hit close to home for me too. Towards the end of my senior year my mom was so sick, 8t was a miracle she was still fighting through her body shutting down on her as long as she was. She had lupus, her twin sister one of my aunties also has lupus. But my mom didn't have as much access to top Healthcare like my auntie did being married to a lawyer. My mom couldn't handle continuing to do what she was expected to being raised in a large conservative Catholic family. She married young to my siblings dad, who had a good office job while my mom stayed at home.  But she couldn't keep living a lie as she used to say and divorced her husband and left to travel and make art. She wound up in Hawai'i and met my dad at a rugby bar, he's Native Hawai'ian. She wound up in another confining relationship like she had in Colorado and it didn't work so she brought me back to Colorado with her.

She was the type of woman who inspired tons of rumors about her lifestyle but was so centered and loving and caring everyone who knew her loved her. Except Judy who was brutal towards my mom and even me as a baby, which happened again when I came back to home with my mom to finish high school, which prompted a whole new round of nastiness wirh claims of my being back in Littleton was because I was a half breed druggie and later that I was intellectually challenged because of how hard it was for me to transfer. My mom claimed this negativity didn't bother her, she refused to even validate it and give it room in her life. But still it was all hard on her body.

She was on regular dialysis and got so sick she was transfered from Littleton Hospital to UC Health Sciences, or as they say today University Hospital,  a huge new campus on Colfax and 225 in north Aurora. Trying to do all my school which included extra online and night classes at McLain (JeffCo's main alternative school in Lakewood), plus working as close to full time as I could, plus Youth Group LifeTeen stuff at Cabrini... even with all the amazing neighbors and church friends who helped us out with food, bringing my mom to treatment during the day, etc  Mr. D and his family helped so much from Mr. D's help at school for me and helping my mom at home with church groups. Judy still just spread nasty rumors.

My brother and sister had a conversation with my auntie, my moms twin, that we needed to sell our house in Littleton. It was just me and my mom and so far from her medical care and way too big for us to take care of. I had to do a lot of the packing and getting ready, my brother came down to help some, and he and sister put the house on the market. Me and my mom moved to a tiny apartment at Colfax and 225, south of the hospitals. It was a shit drive to Littleton for classes but I only had a month or so left.

At this time I worked at the Red Robin location in Aurora. My mom passed away shortly after I graduated high school. I went back between my dad in Hawai'i and my auntie in uncle in Aurora. On 7/20/12 a big group of Aurora Red Robin staff went to see the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises at the Century theater at the Aurora Mall. Sully one of the servers was celebrating his 27th birthday. He was killed the next day was his wedding anniversaries.  Many other co workers and friends were severely injured. I didn't go instead I went home to help my auntie and uncle, until the text messages started coming in. Sully's wife was in Vegas on her way home because he was killed the morning of their first wedding anniversary the day after his birthday.  Another friend almost died her internal organs were all outside her body and it's a miracle she survived.

It was awful. Aurora is more working class and far far more diverse than Littleton, at least in the main traditional parts of Aurora now all the new suburban sprawl. It was so different but so similar. The Rebels Project was started by Columbine survivors which has been great. And say what you wiill about Aurora but there's been very omitted nastiness compared to the post Columbine years.

I was in my 7th grade class in Tewantin State School in QLD Australia and our school held a moment of silence.

I might have been in Germany, on an American army base, at the time. Also I was 5 years old. Don't have any memory of news coverage at the time.

I was not even born yet.
I was born in febuary of 2000

I would've been in 10th grade

I was in third grade. I heard about the shooting from my parents, and I remember them going out of there way to make sure I didn't know about it, but I would watch the news at my grandma's house, so I got to see the jist of it.

I was a little kid. elementary school. thought the idea of a "trench coat mafia" sounded cool. Although I didn't like the two when later on in middle school they had us watch vids about them.
Then in high school I realized why people start going on sprees like that.