Anatomy of a School Shooting
By Dave McGowan at The Center
for an Informed America
May 2000
(The following article appears in the book You
Are Being Lied To)
On May 15, 2000, the Jefferson County Sheriff's
Office released the official report on the shooting deaths of fifteen people
at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Not surprisingly, the
report confirmed the version of events that has been reported ad naseum
for the last year by the U.S. press.
The official story goes something like this:
two disaffected teenagers named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, acting alone
with no assistance in the planning or execution of this crime, entered
Columbine High on the morning of April 20, 1999, armed to the teeth, and
promptly began shooting up the place, leaving twelve fellow students and
one teacher dead before turning their guns on themselves.
As with all the 'big stories' flogged by the
American media, the various avenues of the U.S. press quickly fell in line
behind this story, deftly avoiding any evidence that would tend to cast
doubt on the official version of events. So while there has been some minor
quibbling over insignificant details of the story (i.e. did the gunmen
target athletes, blacks and/or Christians?), few serious journalists have
questioned the central thesis that the carnage at Columbine High that day
was the work of Harris and Klebold acting alone.
Yet strangely enough, the press representatives
closest to the scene, both socially and geographically, have reported facts
about the case that don't appear to fit into the official scenario. Both
the Denver Post and the Denver Rocky Mountain News, the newspapers
serving the greater Denver area (of which Littleton is a part), have provided
coverage which has been consistently ignored by the media in general.
For the benefit of those living outside the Denver
area, presented here you will find a few facts about the tragedy at Columbine
of which you may be unaware and which tend to be at odds with the official
report. Take, for example, the issue of how long the rampage lasted. One
reporter on the scene wrote that:
"The bloody rampage spanned four hours ... By
3:45 p.m., shots still rang out inside the school (as) more than 200 law
enforcement officers and four SWAT teams tried to stop the gunmen and evacuate
wounded high school students." (Denver Post, April 21, 1999). Another
quoted Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, one of the first officials
on the scene, as saying: "We had initial people there right away, but we
couldn't get in. We were way outgunned" (Associated Press, April
20, 1999).
Echoing this sentiment was Terry Manwaring, commander
of the Jefferson County SWAT team, who claimed: "I just knew the killers
were armed and were better equipped than we were." The SWAT teams, therefore,
made no effort to confront the killers (Playboy, March 2000).
The official report, meanwhile, contends that
the "lunchtime rampage ... ended after 45 minutes" and that "Sometime after
noon the killers stood near the library windows and turned their guns on
themselves" (Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2000). Strange then that
there would be shots ringing out some three-and-a-half hours later.
Stranger still is the notion that two teenagers
with limited firearms training and armed only with shotguns and 9mm handguns
would be able to outgun a veritable army of law enforcement officers, many
with advanced paramilitary training and weapons. And you would think that
the fact that the two were already dead would at least have slowed them
down a bit.
Then there is the issue of the bombs strategically
placed throughout the school prior to the shootings. Some of those involved
in the investigation of the case were openly skeptical of the notion that
the two boys could have transported and placed all the explosive devices
that were found. One report noted that:
"The 20-pound bomb found inside the Columbine
High School kitchen suggests the two teenage suspects were aided by others
in their plot to blow up the school, police said Thursday. Packed inside
a duffle bag with a wired gasoline can - and surrounded with nails and
BBs for maximum killing power - the propane barbecue tank-bomb points to
a wider conspiracy, police said." (Denver Post, April 23, 1999).
Likewise, Jefferson County District Attorney
Dave Thomas was quoted as saying: "It is obvious to me that they couldn't
have carried them all in at the same time, plus the four weapons" (Denver
Post, May 5, 1999). And sheriff department spokesman Steve Davis added
that: "From day one we've always felt like there was a very good possibility
that more people were involved" (Associated Press, May 14, 1999).
Ultimately recovered, according to the final
report, were "95 homemade explosive devices," including two bombs
fashioned from propane cylinders (Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2000).
Picture, if you will, two teenagers strolling unnoticed into a high school,
each carrying two firearms, a propane tank bomb and some fifty other explosive
devices, as well as an abundant supply of ammunition.
Picture them then proceeding to carefully place
each of these 95 bombs throughout the school, still unnoticed and undisturbed
by faculty or other students. Nothing unusual about that. Just an average
day at an American high school. Yet the possibility is clearly there that
there may have been more people involved. Many of the witnesses, at any
rate, clearly think so.
"Jefferson County Sheriff John P. Stone raised
the specter of a third Columbine High gunman anew Tuesday, saying some
students have named another suspect. "There was quite possibly one other
person shooting," Stone said. "We do have witness statements." The statements
came from "students who were witnesses at the scene when this was going
down," and they agreed on the third person's identity, he said" (Denver
Post, May 5, 1999).
In fact, one initial report from Littleton began:
"Three young men in fatigues and black trench coats opened fire at a suburban
Denver high school Tuesday...," and also noted that a "third young man
was led away from the school in handcuffs more than four hours after the
attack, and student Chris Wisher said: 'He's one of the ones who shot at
us'" (Associated Press, April 20, 1999). This third suspect has,
oddly enough, never been identified or even mentioned again by the press.
In a televised interview, the mother of a student
who had escaped the attack quoted her daughter as saying that she "looked
up and saw a gunman in a black trench coat with a very huge gun ... He
had dark brown hair, thick bushy eyebrows and was very ugly," a description
that clearly did not fit either Harris or Klebold. When asked if the gunman
was a student, the mother replied that: "She didn't recognize him as a
student. No. Not as a student" (KUSA-TV, April 20, 1999; transcript
posted on The Konformist)
Even more disturbing is a report that: "Dozens
of witnesses interviewed by police after the crime claimed that from five
to eight individuals participated in the shooting that left 15 people dead,
including the killers, and more than 20 injured" (Denver Rocky Mountain
News, July 29, 1999). Five to eight individuals? Dozens of witnesses?
Something definitely seems to be a bit peculiar here.
It is certainly understandable that some witnesses
could have trouble recalling some of the details of the attack. In a situation
of this nature, extreme levels of fear and confusion can cloud one's recollection.
In the ensuing chaos, some witnesses could easily be confused about the
number of shooters.
Nevertheless, there is a considerable difference
between two gunmen and eight gunmen - the latter being pretty much a small
army. Is it really possible for dozens of eyewitnesses to be mistaken
about the additional three to six gunmen? This issue could possibly be
cleared up by examining the autopsy reports of the various victims. Unfortunately,
that isn't likely to happen. It seems that:
"The autopsy reports on the Columbine High School
victims will not be released to the public, a Jefferson County judge ruled
Friday ... Chief District Judge Henry E. Nieto rejected arguments by 18
news organizations ... The coroner's office, district attorney and the
family of killer Dylan Klebold joined the 12 families in getting the documents
sealed" (Denver Post, May 29, 1999).
Another question that could be cleared up by
the release of the autopsy reports is the alleged suicides of the two shooters,
seeing as how "Klebold was shot once in the left side of the head, apparently
by one of two 9 mm weapons ... the wound's location puzzles some investigators.
They believe that if the right-handed Klebold had shot himself, the wound
should have been on the other side" (Denver Rocky Mountain News,
June 13, 1999).
Very clever, those investigators. Clever enough,
in fact, to come up with an explanation for this anomaly. Some authorities
now believe (or claim to anyway) that Harris shot Klebold before shooting
himself. It seems just as likely, however, that a third party shot Klebold,
and perhaps Harris as well.
Moving on to what is perhaps the most bizarre
aspect of the case, we come now to the infamous videotape. You know, the
one that was made in 1997, two years before the actual assault,
and which "depicts gun-toting, trench coat-wearing students moving through
Columbine's halls and ends with a special-effects explosion of the school."
The one that was co-produced by "the son of the FBI's lead agent in the
investigation" (Associated Press, May 8, 1999).
There's certainly nothing unusual about that.
It's actually standard FBI procedure to have your son shoot a training
film for a high school slaughter a couple of years beforehand. It's also
standard procedure to have your other son on hand to eyewitness the crime.
Which is why "(Dwayne Fuselier's) youngest son, Brian, was in the school
cafeteria at the time and managed to escape after seeing one of the bombs
explode" (Denver Post, May 13, 1999).
It should also be noted that another "student
who helped in the production of the film (was) Brooks Brown" (Associated
Press, May 8, 1999). For those not fortunate enough to be home on the
day of the shooting watching the live cable coverage, Brooks Brown was
the student enthusiastically granting interviews to anyone who would stick
a microphone in his face.
He claimed to have encountered Harris and Klebold
as they were approaching the school, and to have been warned away by the
pair from entering the campus that day. According to his story, he heeded
the warning and was therefore not present during the shooting spree. Fair
enough, but let's try to put these additional pieces of the puzzle together.
First, we have the son of the lead investigator,
who was obviously a member of the so-called Trenchcoat Mafia, involved
in the filming of a pre-enactment of the crime. Then we have a second son
of the lead investigator being at ground zero of the rampage. And finally
we have a close associate of both the Fuselier brothers and of Harris and
Klebold (and a co-filmmaker) being in the company of the shooters immediately
before they entered the school, this by his own admission.
And yet, strangely enough, none of them was connected
in any way to the commission of this crime, according to official reports.
Not even Brooks Brown, who should have, if nothing else, noticed that the
pair had some unusually large bulges under their trench coats on this particular
day. At the very least, one would think that there might be just a little
bit of a conflict of interest for the FBI's lead investigator.
This does not appear to be the case, however,
as "FBI spokesman Gary Gomez said there was "absolutely no discussion"
of reassigning Fuselier, 51, a psychologist, in the wake of the disclosures
in Friday's Denver Rocky Mountain News. "There is no conflict of
interest," Gomez said" (Denver Rocky Mountain News, May 8, 1999).
And as no less an authority than Attorney General Janet Reno has stated:
"It has been a textbook case of how to conduct an investigation, of how
to do it the right way" (Denver Post, April 23, 1999).
So there you have it. There was no conspiracy,
there were no accomplices. It was, as always, the work of a lone gunman
(OK, two lone gunmen in this case). But if there were a wider conspiracy,
you may wonder, what would motivate such an act? What reason could there
be for sacrificing fourteen young lives?
Many right-wingers would have you believe that
such acts are orchestrated - or at the very least rather cynically exploited
- as a pretext for passing further gun-control legislation. The government
wants to scare the people into giving up their right to bear arms, or so
the thinking goes. And there is reason to believe that this could well
be a goal.
It is not, however, the only - or even the primary
- goal, but rather a secondary one at best. The true goal is to further
traumatize and brutalize the American people. This has in fact been a primary
goal of the state for quite some time, dating back at least to the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy on that fateful day in Dallas on November
22, 1963.
The strategy is now (as it was then) to inflict
blunt force trauma on all of American society, and by doing so to destroy
any remaining sense of community and instill in the people deep feelings
of fear and distrust, of hopelessness and despair, of isolation and powerlessness.
And the results have been, it should be stated, rather spectacular.
With each school shooting, and each act of 'domestic
terrorism,' the social fabric of the country is ripped further asunder.
The social contracts that bound us together as a people with common goals,
common dreams, and common aspirations have been shattered. We have been
reduced to a nation of frightened and disempowered individuals, each existing
in our own little sphere of isolation and fear.
And at the same time, we have been desensitized
to ever rising levels of violence in society. This is true of both interpersonal
violence as well as violence by the state, in the form of judicial executions,
spiraling levels of police violence, and the increased militarization of
foreign policy and of America's borders.
We have become, in the words of the late George
Orwell, a society in which "the prevailing mental condition [is] controlled
insanity." And under these conditions, it becomes increasingly difficult
for the American people to fight back against the supreme injustice of
21st century Western society. Which is, of course, precisely the point.
For a fractured and disillusioned people, unable
to find common cause, do not represent a threat to the rapidly encroaching
system of global fascism. And a population blinded by fear will ultimately
turn to 'Big Brother' to protect them from nonexistent and/or wholly manufactured
threats.
As General McArthur stated back in 1957: "Our
government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear ... with the cry of
grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home
or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did
not blindly rally behind it...."
Perhaps this is all just groundless conspiracy
theorizing. The possibility does exist that the carnage at Columbine High
School unfolded exactly as the official report tells us that it did. And
even if that proves not to be the case, there really is no need to worry.
It is all just a grand illusion, a choreographed reality. Only the death
and suffering are real.
Postscript: As the dust settled over Columbine
High, other high-profile shootings would rock the nation: at schools, in
the workplace, in a church, and - in Southern California's San Fernando
Valley - at a Jewish community center where a gunman quickly identified
as Buford Furrow opened fire on August 10, 1999. The man, who later would
claim that his intent was to kill as many people as possible, had received
extensive firearms and paramilitary training, both from the U.S. military
and from militia groups.
Shooting in an enclosed area that was fairly
heavily populated, Furrow fired a reported seventy rounds from his assault
rifle. By design or act of God, no one was killed and only a handful of
people were injured, including three children and a teenager. None of the
injuries were life-threatening and all the victims have fully recovered.
With a massive police dragnet descending on the
city, Furrow fled, abandoning his rolling arsenal of a vehicle. Not far
from the crime scene, he stopped to catch up on some shopping and get a
haircut. Along the way, his aim having improved considerably, Furrow killed
a postal worker in a hail of gunfire, for no better reason than because
he was Asian and therefore "non-white."
At about this same time, Furrow car-jacked a
vehicle from an Asian woman. Though this woman - besides being obviously
non-white - was now a key witness who could place Furrow at the scene and
identify the vehicle he had fled in, she was left shaken but very much
alive. Having taken great risks to obtain her vehicle, Furrow promptly
abandoned it, choosing instead to take a taxi.
In an unlikely turn of events, this taxi would
safely transport Furrow all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada. Having successfully
eluded one of the most massive police dragnets in the city's history (which
had the appearance of a very well-planned training exercise), and having
made it across state lines to relative safety, Furrow proceeded directly
to the local FBI office to turn himself in. No word yet as to whether Dwayne
Fuselier was flown in to head up the investigation.
Meanwhile, in Littleton, Colorado, the death
toll continued to mount. On May 6, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported
that a Columbine High student had been found hanged. His death was ruled
a suicide, though "Friends were mystified, saying there were no signs of
turmoil in the teenager's life." One noted that he had "talked to him the
night before, and it didn't seem like anything was wrong."
The young man had been a witness to the shooting
death of teacher Dave Sanders. His was the fourth violent death surrounding
Columbine High in just over a year since the shootings, bringing the body
count to nineteen. Very little information was released concerning this
most recent death, with the Coroner noting only that: "Some things should
remain confidential to the family." (Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2000)
On February 14, 2000, two fellow Columbine students
were shot to death in a sandwich shop just a few blocks from the school.
The shootings, which lacked any clear motive, have yet to be explained.
In yet another incident, the mother of a student who was shot and survived
"walked into a pawnshop in October, asked to see a gun, loaded it and shot
herself to death." (Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2000)
Unexplained was why the shopkeeper would have
supplied her with the ammunition for the gun. Perhaps she brought her own,
though if she had access to ammunition, chances are that she would also
have had access to a gun. Such are the mysteries surrounding the still
rising death toll in Littleton, Colorado.
Editor's note: It is indeed the government's desire to eliminate the right to keep and bear arms from the American people. The government has a goal for the American people and needs guns out of our hands to carry it out. NEVER allow any legislation to pass which will deny the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution to be destroyed. There's a reason why the framers placed that right in the Bill of Rights. It's to protect you from the government. See the first edition of The Journal of History - (La verdad sobre la democracia) for the demand on child proof weapons to be manufactured instead of what is being manufactured at the present time.
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