Columbine

Chapter 49 covers a broad amount of material, including more about the lawsuits facing Jefferson County, the retirement of FBI Agent Dwayne Fuselier; the non-retirement of Principal Frank DeAngelis; the response by popular culture figures; Patrick Ireland’s continued, uphill battle; and school shooters post-Columbine—and a changed police response thereto.

Agent Fuselier retires after a 2001 prison-break case involving the Texas Seven: seven prisoners who broke out of a maximum-security prison in Texas, in 2001, and “embarked on a crime spree” that included killing a police officer (316). Fuselier is key in negotiations, and retires shortly after, at the age of fifty-four.

Principal DeAngelis develops a heart condition. His marriage fails. At first, he plans to retire. Nearly every administrator that was at the school for the attack has left by 2002. At first, he plans to retire in 2002, then decides to stay on after reading letters from students after the attack. At the time of the book’s publication, DeAngelis remained principal at Columbine.

Cullen writes, in regard to Jefferson County releases of information in relation to the lawsuits, “The mother lode came in November 2000: 11,000 pages of police reports, including every witness account. Jeffco said that was everything. … It was still hiding more than half” (315). He adds: “Finally, in June 2003, the search warrant Kate Battan had composed on the afternoon of the massacre came out. It demonstrated conclusively that Jeffco officials had been lying about the Browns all along—that they knew about the warning from the beginning, and the ‘missing’ Web pages were so accessible they’d found them in the first minutes of the attack” (315).

A federal judge, shocked by how Jefferson County officials have withheld information for literally years, says that the county “could not be trusted even to warehouse valuable evidence” (315).

Filmmaker Michael Moore makes Bowling for Columbine, which becomes the “top-grossing documentary in U.S. history.” In the film, he interviews Marilyn Manson and goes to Kmart, where Moore asks whether the bullets still lodged in a Columbine victim—who is with Moore in the store—can be returned: “The stunt and/or publicity around it shamed Kmart into discontinuing ammunition sales nationwide” (317).

Both the Harrises and Klebolds never speak to the press. Reverend Marxhausen, the reverend who agrees to preside over Dylan Klebold’s funeral service, is forced out of his position by the church council. In 2003, all four parents are deposed for reasons relating to lawsuits against them. Their depositions are sealed until 2027. The antidepressant Luvox, which Eric Harris was on at the time of the attacks, is pulled from the market. Jefferson County pays Angela Sanders, daughter of teacher Dave Sanders, $1.5 million. In 2004, Patrick Ireland receives a Business degree from Colorado State University.

Cullen indicates, “School shooting deaths actually dropped twenty-five percent over the next three years” after Columbine but adds, “Everyone expected copycats. The country braced for a new level of horror.” Plots similar to Columbine are foiled in Colorado, Nebraska, and New Jersey. The “FBI and Secret Service each published reports in the first three years [after Columbine], guiding faculty to identify serious threats” (322). In 2003, a national task force releases “‘The Active Shooter Protocol.’ The gist was simple: If the shooter seems active, storm the building. Move toward the sound of the gunfire. Disregard even victims. There is one objective: Neutralize the shooters. Stop them or kill them” (324). This new protocol eschewed caution, mandated the shooter was indeed actively firing, and was accepted across the country. 

Eric and Dylan begin making their videos, deemed The Basement Tapes, on March 15, roughly a month before the attack. They film in the basement of Eric’s parents’ home, using a videocamera “checked out from the Columbine High video lab.” Cullen remarks that Eric usually appears calm in the videos, while Dylan is “animated and angry” (326). In the videos, Eric and Dylan convey apologies that Cullen (and Agent Fuselier) deem largely false, and rail against a broad group of people and institutions. Eric turns eighteen on April 9, eleven days before the attack. He meets with the Marin recruiting officer and “took a screening test, and got an average score” (332). The night before the shooting, Eric and Dylan eat at Outback Steakhouse. 

Columbine’s fifth anniversary draws smaller crowds than anticipated. A memorial in Clement Park, estimated at $2.5 million, cannot obtain the needed funds from the community and is scaled back. Survivors of the attack publish memoirs; “none garnered a fraction of the attention of Misty Bernall’s book” (342).

Cullen writes, “In September 2003, the last known layer of the [Jefferson County] cover-up finally came out” (343). This related to Jefferson County officials being aware of the hate speech and death threats on Eric Harris’s website prior to the attack on the high school. Sheriff John Stone, among others, refuses to cooperate with the investigation. Officer Mike Guerra comes clean about the Open Space Meeting. The probe discovers that people were asked to purposely hide the file containing the comments from Eric’s website after the attack happened. All officials interviewed denied destroying the document. Sheriff Stone “survived [a] recall petition but did not run for reelection” (345).

Cullen concludes the chapter, “In the ten years after Columbine, more than eighty school shootings took place in the United States,” then focuses on the shooting at Virginia Tech, where Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-three people, including himself. Cullen says, “The press proclaimed it a new American record,” and that Cho’s manifesto “cited Eric and Dylan at least twice as inspiration.” However, “Unlike the Columbine killers, he did not seem to be in touch with reality or comprehend what he was doing. He understood only that Eric and Dylan had left an impression” (348).

Chapter 52 focuses on the perspective of Eric and Dylan on the day of the attack: both leading up to it and during it. Cullen observes that the two “spent just five minutes firing outside,” where they “killed two people and advanced into the school.” Over the next five minutes, they shot Dave Sanders, shot at deputies, and “roamed the halls looking for targets” (349). They throw pipe bombs into the cafeteria. They ignore students hiding in the library, then circle back, killing ten in the library and injuring another twelve. Cullen adds, “The remaining thirty-four were easy pickings. But Eric and Dylan got bored” (350). Seven and a half minutes after entering the library, the two killers walked back out and would not shoot at anyone else. Instead, they roamed about, firing into empty classrooms; even when they saw students, they did not shoot at them.

Cullen writes, “To civilians, it seems odd that they stopped shooting and entered this ‘quiet period.’ It’s actually pretty normal for a psychopath. They enjoy their exploits, but murder gets boring, too. Even serial killers lose interest for a few days. Eric was likely proud and inflated, but tired of it already. Dylan was less predictable, but probably resembled a bipolar experiencing a mixed episode: depressed and manic at once—indifferent to his actions; remorseless but not sadistic. He was ready to die, fused with Eric and following his lead (350).

At 11:44, both Eric and Dylan head into the cafeteria. Eric shoots at one of the large bombs that have failed to go off. He fails to detonate the bomb. Dylan then tries to “fiddle with the bomb,” which also fails. Terrified students remain huddled around them. Cullen points out that surveillance camera footage shows that Eric and Dylan’s “shoulders drooped, and they walked slowly. The excitement had drained out of them; the bravado was gone. Eric had also broken his nose. He was in severe pain” (351). As they are leaving the room, Dylan throws a Molotov cocktail that again fails to detonate the propane bomb but does set off the fire sprinklers.

Eric and Dylan walk around the school, “apparently out of ideas,” and “had two essential choices: suicide or surrender.” Cullen maintains that “Eric craved self-determination” and “Dylan just wanted a way out” (351). They return to the library at noon, twenty-four minutes after they’d left it. Cullen describes what they would have encountered: the strong metallic smell from large amounts of blood, the sight of bodies entering early stages of decay (pallor mortis, livor mortis), the sound of the fire alarm. He adds, “The boys may have been oblivious. Mass murderers often shift into an altered state, disassociated and indifferent to the horror” (352), though this is not always the case.

The two go to the window, apparently waiting for their cars to explode, and, “after weathering a final disappointment … called it a day.” Eric and Dylan head to the “southwest corner, one of the few unspoiled areas of the room” (353), very near to Patrick Ireland. Eric put his shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Dylan put his TEC-9 to his left temple and pulled the trigger. Their bodies would be found roughly three hours later. 

The permanent memorial for the Columbine massacre would take eight-and-a-half years, due to budget issues. Bill Clinton attends the unveiling. Patrick Ireland marries his girlfriend. Agent Fuselier continues to be a speaker for law enforcement groups and continues to teach hostage negotiators. The parents of Cassie Bernall resettle in New Mexico. Both the Klebolds and Harrises remained in the Jefferson County area. At the unveiling ceremony for the memorial, thirteen doves are released, followed by two hundred more, for “everyone else” (358).