Just as Dylan had left, Rich Long, head of the technology department and a close friend of Dave Sanders, found him on the floor.
"Dave, you've got to get up!" Rich yelled. "We've got to get out of here!"
Dave pulled himself up, staggered a few feet around the corner. Rich hurried over. As soon as he was out of the line of fire, he ducked his shoulder under Dave's arm. Another teacher got Dave from the other side, and they dragged him to the science wing, just a dozen feet away.
"Rich, they shot me in the teeth," Dave winced.
They moved past the first and second classrooms, then entered Science Room 3. As the door opened and Dave and his rescuers came in, Dave started coughing blood.
The room was full of students. Their teacher had gone out to the hallway to investigate. When he came back, he told them to forget the test and ordered everybody up against the wall. The classroom door had a glass pane. To shooters who might have been stalking through the halls, the room would appear empty if everyone huddled along the interior perimeter.
That's when Dave stumbled in with two teachers assisting him. He collapsed again, face-first, in front of the room. He left a couple of teeth where he landed. They got him into a chair.
"Rich, I'm not doing so well," Dave groaned.
"You'll be okay," Rich assured him. "I'm going to go phone for help."
Several teachers had arrived, so Rich ran back out into the melee, searching for a phone. He learned that somebody was already calling for help. He went back inside.
"I need to go get you some help," Rich told Dave. He went back into the smoky corridor and tried another lab. But the killers were getting closer, apparently right outside the lab's door this time. Rich finally took cover.
LIBRARY
Cassie Bernall and her friend Emily Wyant got under a table and tried to barricade themselves in by pulling some chairs around their tiny perimeter. That made them feel a little safer. Cassie crouched by the window side of the table, looking in toward the room, and Emily got down at the other end, facing Cassie two feet away. They could keep in contact with each other that way and collectively maintain a view of the whole room. The chairs created a lot of blind spots, but the girls were not about to move them. That was the only protection they had.
"Dear God, dear God, why is this happening?" Cassie asked. "I just want to go home."
"I know," Emily agreed. "We all want to get out of here."
Cassie started praying very quietly. Patti Nielson hugged to phone to her ear.
"...are getting shot off. I do not know who the student was. I don't even-I saw him. He was wearing black. He looked very large. Um. Male student. Um...He was out there shooting..."
Patti, and everyone else jumped as Eric blew up a pipe bomb in the hallway.
"It looked like he was..." Patti tried to continue. "...out shooting and somebody- I said 'What is that?'."
"Mmhmm," the Jefferson County dispatcher said.
Another pipe bomb erupted outside.
"I said 'What's going on out there?' Well it's probably a cap gun. Probably a video production, you know, they do these videos..." Nielson continued to the phone.
"Right."
"And the kids...Well, I said-That's not, you know, a play gun, a real gun, I was goin' out there to say 'No'. And I went..."
A very loud shot rang off.
"Oh, my God! That was really close! That just rattled me."
"Okay."
11:26:40 AM
Columbine student Aaron Hancey was still hiding in a science room when one of his teachers returned, trying to find anyone who knew first aid.
"Who knows first aid?" teacher Kent Friesen asked.
"I do. Yeah," Aaron answered.
"Come with me," Friesen said.
Aaron, the two teacher male and female teachers made a mad dash across the hallway. Bombs were still exploding, guns were still being fired. The gunmen could have come around there anytime.
Aaron could feel it through the walls. With each gun shot or pipe bomb blast, he could feel the walls move.
Dave Sanders was in desperate need of medical attention. The trio went into the science room and found Dave on his stomach.
"Mr. Sanders?" Aaron asked. Dave could only groan in pain. "It's okay. We're here to help you. It's Aaron. The paramedics are on their way."
When Aaron came to him, Dave was conscious, fully aware of what was going on and on his stomach. Aaron immediately thought Dave had been shot with a shotgun. In the chest at close range or something like that.
Aaron ran through a rapid inspection of Dave's condition: breathing steady, airway clear, skin warm, shoulder broken, gaping wounds, heavy blood loss. Aaron stripped off his own white Adidas T-shirt to stanch the flow. Other boys volunteered their shirts. No girls volunteered, unfortunately. Aaron tore several into bandage strips and improvised a few tourniquets. He bundled others together into a pillow.
"We're gonna push you a little back on your back, here. One...two...three," Aaron told Sanders. As they gently pushed Dave onto his back, they discovered that Dave Sanders had an entry wound in each shoulder. "It's gonna be okay. Okay. Are you cold? Yes? Do you need a blanket?"
Aaron grabbed a jacket and covered Dave with it. When Aaron looked over the situation, it looked bad. Yeah, Dave Sanders had been shot. That was no small cookie. But he was conscious and very aware of his surroundings. "He's doing great. You're doing...you're doing great, Mr. Sanders."
"I'll call for help," teacher Teresa Miller said. She tried calling 911, but the lines were constantly busy.
"You're doing great, Mr. Sanders. Don't worry. Help is on the way," Aaron continued. "Don't worry."
Aaron thought that they could take Dave out and get him healed up, get operated on if needs be and under cover.
"I've got to go, I've go to go," Dave groaned. He tried to stand, but failed.
By then, there were six police units outside the school. Some were tending to frightened and injured students around the parking lot. Others were securing a perimeter. Following standard police procedures, which emphasize the need to contain an incident, none of the officers ventured into the school to try to challenge the killers.
LIBRARY HALL
Dylan stood outside the library, then he walked south past the library window.
Then Eric stood in the hall outside the library throwing a lit device, resembling dynamite, in a southerly direction. Moments later it exploded in the hall directly outside the library in a small and undamaging, yet hellish fireball.
11:29:21 AM
LIBRARY
In the next seven minutes, Eric and Dylan would carry out the most brutal part of their assault on the school: the attack on the 56 students and staff hiding in the library.
Dylan came into view first at a slow pace. His shotgun laying on his left shoulder, his TEC-DC9 in his right hand hovering next to his right thigh. Eric came at a fast pace, shotgun in his right hand, his carbine slung across his back.
They stood side by side at the library door.
"Get up!" Eric yelled. Nobody moved.
"Everybody get up!" Dylan screamed. "Everybody with white hats, stand up! This is for all the shit you've given us for the past four years!"
"Everyone, get out! We're gonna blow up the library!" Eric added. "Stand up, right now or we'll blow your fucking heads off!"
Oh, well, maybe they just wanna blow up the library as a statement, John thought. Maybe they don't want to actually hurt anybody. John Savage actually thought about getting up and leaving and letting them blow up a bunch of books. But then, no one else got up. Well, maybe I'll just stay.
"Fine, I'll start shooting anyway!" Eric yelled, firing two shots from his shotgun. 15 year old jock Evan Todd was hit by wooden splinters. He wasn't seriously hurt though.
Cha-Chik, Eric's shotgun went. The sound of the shotgun and the red shell casings bouncing on the floor was the loudest thing the people in the library could hear. It was just shell casing hitting the floor, but it was the scariest sound they heard. The noise boomed in their ears as the shells bounced on the floor.
"Oh, my God," Nielson whispered. "They're in here."
"Okay, stay with me, ma'am," the 911 person responded. "You're doing great. You are doing great, okay?"
Evan Todd used the time to conceal himself behind the administrative counter. Eric and Dylan marched into the library. Eric held his shotgun like a Marine across his chest. Dylan stopped and shot Kyle Velasquez, who was trying to hide behind a computer desk, in the back of the head with his shotgun. He died instantly.
"Anyone with a white hat is going to die!" Dylan ranted. "We'll get the guys in white hats!"
"Ya think?" Eric replied as they both set down their backpacks on a table and started reloading their weapons. Dylan put two fresh shotgun shells between his teeth as he unloaded the two spent shells in his shotgun. Eric put shells in his shotgun and then put 9mm bullets in their clips as Dylan put in the shells in his own shotgun.
After they walked about half way through the library was when they came into John Savage's view, then he could see it was actually people that he knew. It was just these two people that John thought were just ordinary regular kids who were suddenly blowing things up and shooting.
What're they doing? John thought.
That's when Eric noticed the police evacuating students. "Let's go kill some cops."
The boys walked west between the north and south computer tables. Dylan stopped at the west end of the computer tables while Eric continued to the south of the computer tables. At the computer tables, Eric got down on his knee. They began shooting out the west library windows at the police.
Dylan fired rapid three-bullet bursts from his TEC-9, Eric raised his Carbine above his head in order to get a better firing angle.
"Shooters!" Gardner yelled and the police returned.
As Eric continued firing, Dylan turned away from the windows and looked Patrick Ireland, Daniel Steepleton, both 17 and Makai Hall, 19 years old, all popular athletes, hiding under a table.
Smiling, he raised his shotgun and fired, injuring all three. After a few seconds of relishing the power, he put down his TEC-9 on a table and removed his trench coat. He picked up his machine pistol and walked on.
Eric grabbed his shotgun and walked over to the lower row of computer desks. Laying the shotgun down, he slung his Carbine on his shoulder.
He picked up his shotgun, then fired underneath the first desk in the row without looking to see who was under it, then fired under the second one. The shots killed Steven Curnow and injured Kacey Ruegsegger. Kacey gasped in pain and shock.
"Quit your bitching," Eric coldly told her, walking away. Dylan laughed hysterically.
Eric walked over to the table across from the lower computer row. Emily could see his legs and his boots. Cassie Bernall cringed when he slapped the top twice with his hand. He knelt down. He poked his shotgun under the table rim as he came down. He didn't pause long, or even stoop down far enough for Emily to see his face. She saw the sawed-off gun barrel. The opening was huge. She looked into Cassie's brown eyes. She was still praying. There was no time for words between them.
"Peek a boo," Eric said. Then he cocked his shotgun and shot Cassie in the head. Everything was muffled then. The blast was so loud, it temporarily blew out most of Emily's hearing. The fire alarm had been unbearably loud, but now she could barely hear it. She could see the light flashing out in the hallway.
Eric was sloppy with the shot: a one-hander, in an awkward half squat. The shotgun kicked back, and the butt nailed him in the face. It broke his nose. Eric had his back to Bree Pasquale, so she couldn't see the gun hit his nose. But she watched him yank back on the pump handle and eject a red shell casing. It dropped to the floor.
Eric checked his nose for blood. Ah shit, I'm bleeding.
He turned to the next table, where student Bree Pasquale sat next to it rather than beneath it. She had not hidden underneath as there was not enough room to hide.
"You wanna die, huh?" Eric asked her.
"No."
"Do you wanna die?" he asked again.
"No, no, no, no, no! I have a family, I have a fiancée, and I don't want to die," Bree pleaded. "Please, don't shoot me. I don't want to die!"
Finally, Eric let out a big laugh. "Well, everyone is going to die."
Bree noticed Eric was disoriented as this occurred, possibly from the wound to his face, which was bleeding heavily.
"Shoot her!" Dylan yelled.
"No, we're all gonna die. We're gonna blow up the school anyway."
Then something distracted him. He walked away.
As Eric taunted Bee, Patrick Ireland tried to aid Makai Hall, who had suffered a wound to his knee. While doing so his head came above the table. Seeing this, Dylan laid his shotgun on his forearm and shot at him, hitting him twice in the head and once in the foot. He was knocked unconscious, but survived.
Dylan proceeded toward another set of tables, discovering Isaiah Shoels, Matthew Kechter, and Craig Scott, Rachel Scott's brother, all hiding under one table. All were popular athletes at the school.
"Reb!" he called, placing his shotgun on the table and kneeling, holding his TEC-DC9, pointing at the jocks. He gave them a hateful stare. They represented his tormentors.
"Yeah?" Eric called, still looking at Bree.
"There's a nigger over here."
John Savage knew that Dylan was talking about Isaiah. He was an African American.
Eric left Bree Pasquale to join him. Before the innocent students could act, Dylan shot his hand under the table and grabbed Isaiah by the foot and tried to pull him out from under the table. Craig and Matthew held on to Isaiah's arms for dear life. Dylan grunted as he tried to pull Isaiah out, pointing his pistol at him, but didn't fire. Cody heard some more banging, then a gunshot.
Eric came over, aimed his shotgun and shot Isaiah in the chest at close range, killing him insantly. John Savage assumed that he had shot him, but he couldn't see him. He hoped for the best.
"I can't believe I just did that…cool," Eric said, relishing the slaughter.
Smiling, Dylan raised his shotgun and opened fire, hitting and killing Matthew Kechter.
"Who's ready to die next?!" Eric yelled, not really expecting an answer.
MEANWHILE…
Aaron Hancey was now struggling to keep Dave Sanders conscious. With the help of a teacher and another student, as well as his father, who was phoning in first aid advice from home, Aaron used family pictures from Dave Sanders' wallet to keep him talking. It really did help him with pictures, because he could get away from 'How are you feeling? Where does it hurt?'. Get away from the pessimistic side of things and try to be optimistic and to see the things he did love.
"Yeah, you're girls want to see you," Aaron encouraged. "Is this your wife?"
"Yes," Dave whispered.
"What's your wife's name?"
"Linda."
"These people love you," the boys said. "That's why you need to live."
Eventually, Aaron and his friend Kevin lost the struggle to keep Dave conscious.
"I'm not going to make it," Dave said. "Tell my girls I love them."
LIBRARY
Eric threw a CO2 bomb at the table where Hall, Steepleton, and Ireland were. The CO2 bomb landed on Daniel Steepleton's thigh. Makai Hall grabbed the bomb and threw the bomb south. The bomb exploded in midair and a girl screamed. Smoke filled the air. Eric walked to the bookcases between the west and center section of tables in the library. He jumped on one of the bookcases and shook it.
"Listen up!" he yelled. "You fucking scared pieces of shit! This school is fucking dead!" He jumped off. He went to the other side the book case he jumped on and shot some books three times.
"Whoo!" Dylan cheered, just before shooting out a display case next to the front library door. "Ah! He he he he ha ha ha ha!" He evilly chuckled. He slowly moved back around the display case and shot under the table closest to him with his shotgun, injuring Mark Kintgen.
Hearing a few girls gasping in panic, Dylan turned to his left and shot at that table, injuring Valeen Schnurr and Lisa Kreutz with the same bullet. Valeen was riddled with shotgun pellets up and down her arms and torso. The force of the bullet pushed Valeen out from under the table. Dylan walked on.
He walked forward, kicking a chair out of the way. He stopped, turned around on the spot and fired under a table with the TEC-9, killing Lauren Townshead. Eric knelt down looked at Schnurr and Kreutz.
"Pathetic!" he yelled. The two boys move south to a table where they stopped to reload weapons. Valeen was on her knees, then her hands. Blood was streaming out of thirty four separate wounds.
"Oh my God! Oh my God, help me! Please, God, don't let me die," Valeen cried.
Dylan turned around. This was too rich. Valeen looked up, directly into the eyes of Dylan Klebold.
"You believe in God?" he sneered, as he reloaded his shotgun.
"No..." Valeen thought about lying to him, but couldn't. "Yes."
"Why, huh?" he asked, putting two new shells between his teeth.
"Because I believe...Because it's what my parents taught me," she replied as Dylan tossed the empty shells at her. "It's what I believe."
"God is gay and you're pathetic," Dylan taunted as he put in the new shells. He spared her and left. Dylan had spent his whole life as a Lutheran. Ethnically, he was a Jew because of his mother.
Eric moved to another table and shot twice underneath it, injuring both Nicole Nowlen and John Tomlin. Beneath the table, Nicole saw combat boots, then a gun. The gun blasts hit the right side of her body nine times, and five slugs lodged in her stomach.
"Are you breathing?" Dylan asked. Nicole played dead, and lived. When Tomlin tried to crawl out, Dylan came around the corner and kicked him.
"Really?" Eric taunted. "Did you really think you could escape us?"
"Don't..." John said weakly. "Done enough..."
"You think we're done enough?" Dylan said, laughing.
Eric nodded at Dylan, who shot John repeatedly with the TEC-9, killing him.
Eric walked back over to the other side of the table where Lauren Townsend was. Behind it, Kelly Fleming, like Bree Pasquale, sat next to the table rather than beneath it. Eric shot at her with his shotgun, hitting her in the back, and killing her instantly. He continued to shoot at the table behind her, hitting Townsend and Kreutz again, and wounding Jeanna Park.
The phone lines left open by Patti Nealson and Bailey Puckett recorded the sounds of the killings in the library.
Eric went to the southern library windows and looked out into the south parking lot. Eric and Dylan passed through the east side book shelves into the center section. Both shooters stood at a nearby table. They again reloaded their weapons. Eric walked north to the south computer table to gain access to the blue backpack containing additional ammunition. Then he returned to the area near tables he reloaded his weapons at.
During the shooting, you could hear Dylan saying all kinds of things to people before he shot them. But Eric didn't do so as much. He yelled a few things, but Dylan did most of the talking. There was a very distinct difference between how the two handled the shooting that day. It was incredibly difficult to listen to, even if you didn't know the people they were killing and who was killing them.
11:37 AM
The shooters moved to the center of the library, where they continued to reload their weapons at a table midway across the room. John Savage could see Eric's boots coming towards him through the rows of book shelves. Wow, this is it, John thought. Man, this…like…I could die here. It was pretty shocking.
Eric noticed John and pointed his Carbine rifle at him. "Who's under there? Identify yourself."
"It's John." They kinda knew him a little. John was hoping that he'd remember that he wasn't a jock and that he tried to treat him with respect.
Dylan came up right behind Eric. "John Savage?" he asked.
"…yeah."
Dylan gestured his head to the left. Eric nodded and left.
"Hey, Dylan. What are you doing?" John asked.
"Oh, just killing people," Dylan sighed, laying his shotgun on his shoulder.
"Oh," John said. That was just creepy. "Are you gonna kill me?"
"What?" Dylan asked, because of the fire alarms.
"Are you gonna kill me?" John asked.
Dylan hesitated, biting his lip. After a moment, he spoke. "Naw, man. Just get outta here…Just run."
John didn't move, fearing he was going to shoot him anyway.
"Run…Run!" Dylan yelled, and John finally did, making a safe escape through the library's main entrance.
Eric noticed 15 year old Daniel Mauser.
"Nice glasses," he taunted before shooting Daniel, hitting him in the nose. He was killed instantly.
"Was he trying to jump you?" Dylan joked.
"Yeah," Eric tried to say, blood pouring out of his nose. He was kind of dizzy from the recoil of the shotgun breaking his nose. The boys moved north in the center section and proceeded to the southeast corner of the far south computer table.
As the killings went on unchecked in the library, the police's presence outside continued to build. Gunshots from the library were clearly heard and reported by officers outside, who were just tens of meters away. The police now, also, had good descriptions of Eric and Dylan. But no officers would enter the school for another half an hour.
Later, police would say they received conflicting reports of a possible sniper on the roof and that there were as many as eight gunmen. Also, communications problems made coordination ever more difficult.
One of the things the police don't want you to know about that day is that on April 20, 1999, while the killings was taking place, while these innocent children are being murdered in the library, the outside library doors propped open, and the police men were standing by their cars on the lawn outside are listening to these children being murdered and they listen and they listen. They never rescued them. They let them be murdered. No matter what anyone says, that is not acceptable.
And when they talk about how they saved many kids that day, that's not true. Those kids saved themselves. They came out of that school, saving themselves by themselves. The only thing the police did was prevent the killers from leaving the school by setting up a perimeter, provide suppressing fire when the shooters shot at them, and pull Rachel Scott from the place that she was killed, only to discover that she was already dead. Danny Rohrbough was left where he was killed for hours. They only saved one student, Anne Hochhalter. If they were two minutes late, she would be dead.
HALLWAYS
John Savage ran for his lives down the hallways. He was scared that the killers would change their minds, so he ran as fast as he could. Just in case they decided to come around and shoot him in the back. He finally reached the front entrance of the school.
LIBRARY
Dylan came around and shot under a table with the TEC-DC9, wounding Austin Eubanks and killing Corey DePooter. Eric came right beside him and wounded Austin again and shot Jennifer Doyle with his Carbine, shooting until it clicked.
"I'm out of ammo, and this isn't fun anymore," Eric said.
"Maybe we should start knifing people, that might be more fun," Dylan said, walking away with his shotgun on his left shoulder. They moved north in the center section and proceeded to the southeast corner of the far south computer table.
OUTSIDE
John Savage came out with his hands up at the sight of police SIGs. It made him realize how short life is. When you're young, it seems like it's going to go on forever and you have plenty of time. You don't have forever.
LIBRARY
11:36:04 A.M
The seven minute killing spree in the library came to a sudden end just before 11:36.
The boys moved away from the table and headed toward the library's main counter. Eric threw a Molotov cocktail toward the southwestern end of the library as he went. It exploded and a few girls screamed and a guy cursed. It didn't do much damage though, mostly a flash.
Eric came around the east side of the counter and Dylan joined him from the west, both converging near where Evan Todd had moved after the copier incident.
Evan saw Dylan check the magazine room, testing the door, which was locked, before turning to the room directly east of the magazine room. He swept the room with his TEC-9 and then turned to head back in the direction where Evan was hiding. He pulled the chair out and pointed the TEC-9 in Evan's face.
"Hey, boy," Dylan said. His voice had an indescribable amount of hatred.
Evan could see Eric approaching as well, and noticed it looked as though Eric had a broken nose. He appeared a bit dizzy and wobbly; he had to catch his balance.
"What?" Eric asked.
"Just some fat fuck," Dylan replied. With the gun still in Evan's face, he asked: "Are you a jock?"
"No."
"Well, that's good. We don't like jocks." He paused. "Let me see your face." Evan took off his hat then and tilted his head back so Dylan could see him.
"Evan Todd...Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you," Dylan told him in anger.
"I don't want to get in trouble." He had no idea why he said that but the answer seemed to make Dylan angry.
"Trouble?" Dylan raged. "You don't even know what fucking trouble is! You fucking little fat piece of shit!"
"That's not what I meant! I mean, I don't have a problem with you guys. I never will and I never did."
"You used to call me a fag..." Dylan said, sneering at the jock.
Dylan stared at him for a moment then looked away. He fired shot into an open library staff break room, hitting a small television, breaking glass and installing fear into Evan. Even though Dylan had confronted Evan Todd, he threatened and abused him, but didn't kill him.
"Who's a fag now?!" he screamed, then paused. "I'm gonna let this fat fuck live, you can have at him if you want to," Dylan told Eric.
Eric didn't seem to be paying any attention to what Dylan was saying and never acknowledged him. "You want to go to the Commons?" Eric asked.
"I've one more thing to do." Dylan laid his guns on a table where the Patti Nielson hid. Dylan now seemed reduced to a gesture of repressed rage. He picked up a chair. He unleashed his fuming rage, slamming the chair down on a computer and some folders, sending it flying off the terminal.
"Reb!" Dylan called. "You ready?"
"Yeah, let's get the fuck outta here," Eric replied.
Review, plz. Thanks.
