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Extensive report full of surprises By The Denver PostStaff and Wire Reports Nov. 22, 2000 - Among 11,000 pages of investigative documents are numerous revelations about the Columbine High School massacre and events surrounding it. Here are some: One of the killers may have had second thoughts, according to Lisa Michelle Kreutz, a student in the library during the rampage there. She remembers hearing one of the gunmen say to the other, before they entered the library, "Are you still with me? We're going to do this, right?" People listed in Eric Harris' planning book - under the title "Class of '98 That Should Have Died" - said they weren't surprised by the gunmen's actions. One said there had been rumors for two years about Harris and Dylan Klebold's plans to blow up the school, and that school officials who were told of the allegations refused to take them seriously. Police have said they didn't believe bombs were placed in the school before April 20. Yet an account from a woman who worked the after-prom party on April 17, 1999, said she saw a propane tank in the freezer that night. She said she thought it was for blowing up balloons for the party and that it didn't look like the oxygen tank she saw upstairs. The killers used school-owned video equipment to tape their practice shooting weeks before the massacre, according to Mark Manes' statement to police. The two were enrolled in the school's video classes. Manes sold the killers a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic handgun they used. The boys also tried to get more powerful weapons from friends, specifically an ARK-15, a semiautomatic rifle. On April 19, students saw Harris looking around outside the school library. When asked "What's up?" Harris responded, "Planning for tomorrow." The student assumed Harris was planning another video for class. Four days before the massacre, Harris began pestering Manes to buy 9mm ammunition for two guns later used in the shootings. Manes forgot several times, and on April 19 said he "feels bad he has not purchased it ... (he) decides to go immediately to purchase the 9mm ammunition," according to Manes' statement to investigators. who was at Columbine the day of the attack, said Klebold and Harris had been angry after being ostracized by athletes and had talked about "blowing up the school," but she was under the impression they were not serious. Aaron Cohn, another student who was in the library - where most victims were killed - said Klebold walked up to him and asked, "How about you, big boy, you want to get shot today?" He said he saw a shotgun 12 inches from his head, but Klebold walked away without shooting. He also said he heard the killers use racial epithets. Denver Post writers Brady McCombs, Stacie Oulton and Trent Seibert, and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2000 The Denver Post. All rights reserved. |