Judy L. Hasday - Forty-Nine Minutes of Madness. The Columbine High School Shooting

RAMPAGE IN COLUMBINE

April 20, 1999, was an ordinary school day for students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Classrooms were full of students finishing their last assignments before final exams. When the bell rang for the first lunch period, some went outside to enjoy the warm weather. But minutes later, the sound of gunfire pierced the peaceful spring day. At 11:19 A.M., two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, unleashed a long-planned murderous assault on their fellow classmates at Columbine, leaving twelve students and one teacher dead before taking their own lives. Author Judy L. Hasday carefully examines one of the worst incidents of school violence in American history, including accounts from witnesses and survivors.

About the Author

JUDY L. HASDAY, a native of Pennsylvania and an award-winning author, has written several books for young readers.

Rachel Ruth (left), Rhianna Cheek (center), and Mandi Annibel, three sophomores from Columbine High School, console each other at a vigil service honoring the shooting victims on April 21, 1999, a day after the murderous assault at their school.

AT ONE TIME, LITTLETON, COLORADO, was just a small prairie town located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. In the mid-1800s, gold prospectors and traders occupied this area around present-day Denver, Colorados state capital. Whether they found their fortunes or not, many gold seekers decided to settle permanently in this relatively undeveloped territory. Over time, more people came to make their homes in the area. Soon, Denver and the surrounding towns grew into thriving communities.

The town of Littleton is located just a few miles southwest of Denver. In 1999, it had about forty thousand residents. To their horror, the residents of Littleton would discover that two of their finest students were cold-blooded killers.

Columbine High School Principal Frank DeAngelis, who was principal at the time of the shooting, stands at the schools main entrance on April 14, 2004. When Columbine opened its doors that fateful morning, all seemed normal as students went about their daily routines.

Littleton is located in Jefferson County, Colorado. The county is the most populous in the state, with about 525,000 residents. Almost two thousand teenagers from the county attend Columbine High School.

There was nothing unusual about the start of the school day at Columbine on Tuesday morning, April 20, 1999. For some students, the day started very early. Bowling class began at 6:15 A.M. Eric Harris was among the students in the class and arrived at the bowling alley on time. Fellow classmate Jessica Rosecrans did not notice anything unusual about Harris that morning: He was not acting strange or anything. He was wearing regular clothes. He was wearing flannel.

Student Aaron Hancey normally had choir practice at 7:00 A.M. , but like many at Columbine, he was always involved in many activities. Often he had to juggle his schedule. On this morning, he knew he would miss chemistry class because he was in a concert that afternoon. Wanting to get his science work done, he skipped choir and headed for one of the labs. Later, Hancey told a reporter that it would have been safer if I had been in the choir room.

With graduation just weeks away, most students were focused on finishing up class work and preparing for final exams. By late morning, students could be found just about anywhere on the school grounds. Some wanting quiet went to the school library to study. Others opted to be outside, enjoying the sunny, sixty-degree spring day. It was a nice day to sit under a tree and read a book, eat lunch on the lawn, or head over to the Smokers Pit for a cigarette break.

At 11:10 A.M. , Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at school in separate cars. Klebold drove his familiar black BMW to the senior parking lot area. Harris pulled his gray Honda Civic into the junior lot, north of where Klebold had parked. They parked their cars so that they flanked the school building. Both Harris and Klebold had missed their earlier classes at Columbine. They had been busy with other things.

In their notebooks, Harris and Klebold had written down detailed descriptions of their plans for April 20, 1999. It was the day they had referred to as Judgment Day. Their itineraries were very time specific. There was much to do before 11:00 A.M. In Harriss planner, he wrote: 5:00, Get up; 6:00, meet at KS; 7:00, go to Rebs house; 7:15 he leaves to fill propane, I leave to fill gas; 8:30, meet back at his house; 9:00, made d. bag set up car; 9:30, practice gearups; Chill; 10:30, set up four things; 11, go to school; 11:10, set up duffel bags; 11:12, wait near cars, gear up; 11:16, HAHAHA.

For more than a year, Harris and Klebold had been planning to launch a murderous attack on Columbine High School. Hoping to kill as many students as possible, they timed their assault to begin during first period lunch when the cafeteria would be packed with close to five hundred students.

Carrying two huge duffel bags, Harris and Klebold headed for the lunchroom. Inside the bags were two, twenty-pound homemade propane tank bombs. The bombs were timed to explode at 11:17 A.M. As they walked toward the door leading to the cafeteria, Harris saw Brooks Brown, an on-again, off-again friend. Brown had stepped outside to grab a smoke. That cigarette break may have saved his life. As they passed Brown, Harris said, Brooks, I like you. Get out of here. Go home.

On July 6, 2006, the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office released nearly one thousand pages of documents from the Columbine High School massacre, including essays, schoolwork, and computer files from Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two suicidal killers. No further information has been made available about the contents of the individual documents. In their notebooks, Harris and Klebold wrote detailed descriptions of their plans for April 20, 1999.

Harris and Klebold then went into the cafeteria. They placed the duffel bags among the countless other backpacks and gym bags lying on the floor around the cafeteria tables and chairs. No one would suspect anything out of the ordinary. Then they went back outside, strapped on their ammunition, put on their black trench coats, and waited for the bombs to detonate.

According to their treacherous plan, they would lie in wait for anyone trying to escape the fiery inferno inside. Armed with shotguns and semiautomatic weapons, Harris and Klebold planned to shoot any survivors fleeing the building.

They waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened. The bombs did not go off. Up in the school library, about four dozen students were using their lunch period to study. In one of the classrooms nearby, Dave Sanders was teaching a class. Farther down the hall, Columbine junior Stephanie Williams was practicing in the choir room. Many students had decided to spend their lunchtime outside and were milling about the grounds.