Columbine High School massacre
| Columbine High School massacre | |
|---|---|
Harris (left) and Klebold (right) in the cafeteria at 11:57 a.m. | |
| Location | Columbine, Colorado, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 39°36′12″N 105°04′29″W / 39.60333°N 105.07472°W |
| Date | April 20, 1999 11:19 a.m. – 12:08 p.m. (MDT) |
| Target | Students and staff at Columbine High School, first responders |
Attack type | School shooting, mass shooting, mass murder, murder–suicide, arson, attempted bombing, shootout |
| Weapons | Harris:
Klebold:
Both:
|
| Deaths | 16 (including both perpetrators and a victim who died in 2025) |
| Injured | 23 (20 by gunfire) |
| Perpetrators | Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold |
| Motive | Undetermined |
| Convicted | Mark Manes and Philip Duran (weapons suppliers) |
| Convictions | Manes and Duran: Supplying a handgun to a minor, possession of an illegally sawed-off shotgun |
| Sentence | Manes: 6 years in prison Duran: 4+1⁄2 years in prison[2][3] |
| Litigation | Multiple lawsuits against the perpetrators' families and suppliers of the weapons[a] |
| Part of a series of articles on the |
|
Location: Perpetrators: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold |
The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting and attempted bombing that occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States on April 20th, 1999.[b] The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students[c] and one teacher; ten were killed in the school library, where Harris and Klebold subsequently died by suicide. Twenty additional people were injured by gunshots, and gunfire was exchanged several times with law enforcement with neither side being struck. Another three people were injured trying to escape. The Columbine massacre was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in U.S. history until December 2012.[d][e] It is still considered one of the most infamous massacres in the United States, for inspiring many other school shootings and bombings; the word Columbine has since become a byword for modern school shootings. As of 2025, Columbine remains both the deadliest mass shooting and school shooting in Colorado, and one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States.
Harris and Klebold, who planned for roughly a year, intended the attack to be primarily a bombing and only secondarily a shooting. The pair launched a shooting attack after the homemade bombs they planted in the school failed to detonate. Their motive remains uncertain. The police were slow to enter the school and were heavily criticized for not intervening during the shooting. The incident resulted in the introduction of the immediate action rapid deployment (IARD) tactic, which is used in active-shooter situations, and an increased emphasis on school security with zero-tolerance policies. The violence sparked debates over American gun culture and gun control laws, high school cliques, subcultures (e.g. goths), outcasts, and school bullying, as well as teenage use of pharmaceutical antidepressants, the Internet, and violence in video games and film.
Many makeshift memorials were created after the massacre, including ones using victim Rachel Scott's car and John Tomlin's truck. Fifteen crosses for the victims and the shooters were erected on top of a hill in Clement Park. The crosses for Harris and Klebold were later removed after controversy. The planning for a permanent memorial began in June 1999, and the resulting Columbine Memorial opened to the public in September 2007.
As of June 2025, the shooting has inspired more than 70 copycat attacks, and its impact has been dubbed the Columbine effect.[f]
- ^ Brooke, James (May 11, 1999). "Teacher of Colorado Gunmen Alerted Parents". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
histwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Lindsay, Sue (June 24, 2000). "Duran gets Prison Term". Rocky Mountain News. Archived from the original on April 17, 2001. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
- ^ Janofsky, Michael (April 20, 2001). "$2.53 Million Deal Ends Some Columbine Lawsuits". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 24, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ "Columbine High School Shootings Fast Facts". CNN. September 19, 2013. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ "$250 million Columbine lawsuit filed". CNN. May 27, 1999. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ "Columbine High School". Archived from the original on May 10, 2015. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
- ^ "2010 Census – Census Block Map: Columbine CDP, CO Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine" U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved April 25, 2015. 1990 U.S. Census maps: index and pages 30 and 35.
- ^ "Littleton Zip Codes". City of Littleton. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
Zip Code 80123 Area in City Limits Partially
- ^ "The Denver Post Online - Columbine - Tragedy and Recovery". extras.denverpost.com.
- ^ "Cho: Killers at Columbine "Martyrs"". April 18, 2007.
- ^ "Sandy Hook report reveals gunman obsessed with Columbine shootings". PBS. November 25, 2013.
- ^ Taylor, Joshua (October 17, 2018). "Crimea school shooting's chilling similarities to Columbine massacre". Mirror.
- ^ "Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz researched Columbine massacre, panel is told". Fox News.
- ^ Max Sebastian Zettl et al.: Ursachen. In: Matthias Böhmer (Hrsg.): Amok an Schulen. Prävention, Intervention und Nachsorge bei School Shootings. Springer, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-22707-4, p. 71.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).