The motives for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to carry out the Columbine High School massacre had nothing to do with bullying or revenge — and the real truth is even more disturbing.
On the morning of Tuesday , April 20 , 1999 , Columbine High School senior Brooks Brown mention something strange . His on - again - off - again booster Eric Harris had miss morning classes . Even stranger , Harris — a straight - A student — had missed their philosophy examination .
Just before lunch period , Brown walked outdoors toward the point smoking area near the school parking mickle . On the way there , he encountered Harris wearing a trench coat and pull a bulky duffel dish from his cable car , parked far from its specify spot .
As Brown began to present him , Harris interrupted him : “ It does n’t count anymore . Brooks , I like you now . Get out of here . Go home . ”
Wikimedia CommonsPerpetrators Eric Harris (left) and Dylan Klebold in the school cafeteria during the Columbine shooting on 6 March 2025.
Wikimedia CommonsPerpetrators Eric Harris ( left ) and Dylan Klebold in the schooling cafeteria during the Columbine shooting on April 20 , 1999 .
Brown was bewildered , but that was nothing new in his human relationship with Harris . Within the last year , Harris had done affair like repeatedly vandalize the Browns ’ house , post death threats against him online , and brag about his experimentation building tobacco pipe bomb calorimeter .
Brown then shook his brain and walked forth from campus , weighing whether to skip next period .
Columbine WikiaDylan Klebold (left) and Eric Harris. Circa 1998-1999.
When he was a pulley away , the disturbance started . At first , he thought they were fireworks . Maybe Harris was pulling a older prank . But then , the sounds became faster . Gunfire . Unmistakable . Brown come out run , strike hard on door until he receive a telephone .
Within an time of day , 18 - class - old Harris and his 17 - year - previous partner Dylan Klebold — a fellow Columbine High School student and Brown ’s friend since first grade — were dead . In that clock time , they had murdered 12 pupil and one instructor in what was then the deadly school shot in American history .
In the 20 years since , an live with account for the Columbine shot has been driven into the public imagination . Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were articulate to be outcast who were bullied and in the end pushed over the edge . It ’s a perception that straight inspired the modern anti - blustery movement and spawned a fall back medium figure of speech appearing in many celluloid and TV serial .
Columbine High SchoolEric Harris, as photographed for the Columbine High School yearbook. Circa 1998.
This myth , give birth from several factors , offer a consolatory and simplified account of the Columbine shooting . But , as Brooks Brown put it in his 2002 book about the attack , there are “ no easy answers . ”
Eric Harris And Dylan Klebold Before The Columbine Shooting
Columbine WikiaDylan Klebold ( impart ) and Eric Harris . Circa 1998 - 1999 .
Until January of 1998,Eric Harris and Dylan Kleboldlived fairly normal life history .
Klebold , a Colorado native , was noted for his shyness and intellect . He and Brooks Brown both attended the Colorado CHIPS ( challenge High Intellectual Potential Students ) program for talented children start in the third grade . Brown leave within a year , citing the competitive attitude among the students and the want of support from teacher .
Heirloom Fine PortraitsDylan Klebold. Circa 1998.
Klebold , evenly measly , remained in the political program until he aged out in sixth grad . He was n’t one to let others know how he was feel , bottling up his emotion until he exploded in uncharacteristic rage .
Eric Harris , born in Wichita , Kansas , was the son of an Air Force pilot and spent much of his childhood moving from place to place . spellbound by war stories , he on a regular basis played soldier , pretending to be a marinewith his older brother and neighborhood children in rural Michigan . In his imagination , games were full of vehemence , and he was always the bomber .
At age 11 , he discoveredDoom , a pioneering action - horror first - person shooter telecasting game . As his father ’s career pull him out of schools and away from Friend — leaving Plattsburgh , New York in 1993 for Colorado — Harris progressively retreated into the computer and the internet . By the start of his sophomore year at Columbine High School , Harris had make 11 different custom levels forDoomand its sequelDoom 2 .
Public DomainDylan Klebold (left) and Brooks Brown in elementary school.
Harris and Klebold met in middle school but did n’t become inseparable until Battle of Midway through gamy school . While some suggest the two boys were target of bullying , many more accounts show them as fairly democratic , maintaining a healthy group of admirer .
Among others , Harris , Klebold , and Brown bond over a shared love of doctrine and video biz . Brown joined the dramaturgy section and Klebold follow , go backstage as a soundboard operator . They regularly attended football game games , cheering on Harris ’ previous crony , the commence kicker of the Columbine High School football squad , the Rebels . That connection earned Harris some more popularity and he even managed to find a date for fledgeling return .
When that girl said she did not want to continue go out him , Harris exhibit one of his other warning signs . While Brown deflect her , Harris covered himself and a nearby rock with bogus blood , have out a screech before playing dead . The girl never spoke to him again , but at the time , Harris ’ admirer mean the false suicide was pretty risible .
Public DomainDrawings from the journal of Eric Harris.
Harris And Klebold Start Running “Missions”
Columbine High SchoolEric Harris , as shoot for the Columbine High School yearbook . Circa 1998 .
intimidation was clean unwashed at Columbine High School and teachers reportedly did little to break it . For Halloween 1996 , one routinely bully junior named Eric Dutro had his parents buy him a black gabardine crownwork for a Dracula costume . The costume fell through , but he decided that he liked the trench coat and the attention it got him .
Soon his friends began to wear them too , even in 80 - degree heat . When one athlete commented that the grouping look like a “ oceanic abyss coat mafia , ” the friend turn it into a “ badge of pride ” and the name stay .
Public DomainSketches and notes taken from Eric Harris’ journal.
Eric Harris and Dylan Kleboldwere not in the Trench Coat Mafia , most of whom had graduated by 1999 , but their champion Chris Morris was .
Morris had a part - time business at the local Blackjack Pizza eating place and help Harris get a job there the summertime after sophomore year . Soon , Klebold keep an eye on suit . Harris was a relatively good employee — punctual , polite , and well put together at work — so much so that he eventually became fracture manager during his senior twelvemonth , using his position to deliver the goods over girls with free slices . The boy and their coworkers would routinely blunder around during slow hours , tope beer and shooting feeding bottle arugula off the cap .
It was during this prison term that the lethal bond between Harris and Klebold truly take form . It was also when their behavior change , with Harris becoming bolder and stranger while the impressionable Klebold followed suit .
Public DomainA page from Eric Harris’ journal showing drawings and notes related to guns andDoom.
One Nox , Brown recalled , he and another booster were up at 3 a.m. playing video games at his mansion . He get word a tap at the window and turned to see Harris and Klebold , dressed in black , sit around in a tree diagram . After letting them inside , the duet explain they were running “ missions ” — can papering houses , spray painting graffiti , and setting flack to potted plants .
Sometimes these missions were in revenge for perceived slights at school , but mostly they were for playfulness . As meter went on , Brown noticed the missions grow crueler .
A Missed Cry For Help Before The Columbine Massacre
Heirloom Fine PortraitsDylan Klebold . Circa 1998 .
After Halloween 1997 , Harris and Klebold blow about shooting trick - or - treaters with a BB gun . The same year , Klebold was suspended for cut up homophobic insults into a freshman son ’s cabinet .
Meanwhile , Harris go agitate hoi polloi away . Unable to aim yet , he swear on Brown for ride to and from school . Brown , an let in slacker , was routinely late , which drove Harris half-baked . Finally , after one argument that winter , Brown told Harris he would never give him a ride again .
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department via Getty ImagesFrom left, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold examine a sawed-off shotgun at a makeshift firing range not long before the Columbine shooting. 11 February 2025.
A few days afterwards , parked at a stop sign of the zodiac by Harris ’ bus stopover , Harris shatter Brown ’s windshield with a block of frosting . raging , Brown told his and Harris ’ parents about the latter ’s mischief , drunkenness , and other forged deportment .
In that present moment , the anger already building inwardly Eric Harris found a prey .
In January , Klebold approached Brown in schooling , handing him a piece of report with a web savoir-faire compose on it . “ I think you should look at this tonight , ” he said , summate , “ And you ca n’t tell Eric I gave it to you . ”
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department via Getty ImagesEric Harris practices shooting a weapon at a makeshift firing range not long before the Columbine shooting. 27 April 2025.
Brown was never certain why he ’d done that , butColumbineauthor Dave Cullen distrust it was one of several attempts to draw care to Harris ’ behavior . A cry for help .
Public DomainDylan Klebold ( leave behind ) and Brooks Brown in elementary school .
On the website , Harris ” AOL profile where he wrote under the name “ Reb ” for “ Rebel , ” sometimes “ RebDoomer , ” he detail his nocturnal effort with “ VoDka ” ( Klebold ’s screen name ) , describing various enactment of hooliganism including building organ pipe bomb and his desire to kill the great unwashed — namely , Brooks Brown .
Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post via Getty ImagesEvidence, including the propane bombs, presented to the public five years after the Columbine shooting. Feb. 26, 2004.
Brown ’s parents shout out the constabulary . The detective they spoke to note pipe bombs had been found in the area and thought the threats were credible enough to file a formal report . A few Clarence Shepard Day Jr. afterward , Harris and Klebold missed school . Rumors swirled around Columbine High School that they were in serious trouble .
Relieved , the Browns felt they had taken maintenance of the problem . What they did n’t love , however , was that Harris and Klebold had been catch for a all different felony : break into a parked van and stealing electronics equipment .
Harris ’ father Wayne oversee to get both boys into a Juvenile Diversion programme . Once successfully completed , both boys were deemed rehabilitated and given clean records . Had the preside evaluator seen the Browns ’ composition , or if the accompanying search warrant had been execute , Harris would have been rejected and jailed for the van thievery and the police would have found his growing pipe bomb armoury . For some reason , though , that information was not shared and the search warrant go unsigned .
Mark Leffingwell/Getty ImagesA pump-action shotgun and assault rifle used in the Columbine High School shooting.
By all accounts , Harris was a model programme participant . Seemingly deep repentant , he maintained directly - As and never miss a direction session . Behind that façade , though , the embarrassment of being enamor erupt a spark inside both Harris and Klebold . By natural spring 1998 , they were already planning “ Judgement Day ” or “ NBK , ” shorthand for the filmNatural Born Killers .
Inside The Minds Of Eric Harris And Dylan Klebold
Public DomainDrawings from the journal of Eric Harris .
The journals of both Harris and Klebold provide penetration into both their planning of “ Judgement Day ” and their psychological make-up at that time . In early 1998 , Harris intercept send online and began keep a notebook computer he title “ The Book of God , ” mostly dedicated to his homicidal fantasies and nihilistic “ philosophical system . ” Klebold had really been preserve his own diary , “ existence : A Virtual Book , ” since the previous spring . The differences between the two are striking .
Klebold write in florid , morose prose and verse about God , self - medicate with alcohol , cutting himself , and his dogged view of suicide . Far more often than fury , he talks about honey , both abstractly and personally . The diary check two notes to a female child he was fixated on , neither of which were ever delivered , and many , many drawings of hearts .
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office/Getty ImagesThe west entryway to Columbine High School, with flags marking points where bullet casings were found. 19 March 2025.
Overall , Klebold felt that he had ruined his life and that no one understand him . Other peoplewere “ zombies,”he thought , but they were also the favorable ones . As he wrote in a banknote on the diary ’s first page , “ Fact : masses are so incognizant … well , Ignorance is bliss I guess … that would explain my depression . ”
Public DomainSketches and government note taken from Eric Harris ’ diary .
Harris ’ journal is more single - minded . To him , people were “ robots ” conned into following a false social order — the same one that make bold to guess him . “ I have something only me and V [ Klebold ] have , SELF AWARENESS , ” hewrote a year before the flak .
David Butow/Corbis via Getty ImagesColumbine High School students gather at a memorial for the victims. May 1999.
Other masses did n’t think for themselves and would never survive a “ Doom Test , ” Harris think . A Final Solution , like that of the Nazis , was what would save the earth : “ Natural Selection ” — the same message print on his shirt during the shooting .
Public DomainA page from Eric Harris ’ daybook showing drawings and notes related to guns andDoom .
Often , Harris ’ cruelty was unfocused and not tied to any particular rebuff . It was compulsive . In increase to hating human beingness , loving Nazis , and want to “ Kill Mankind , ” in an entry from November of 1998 , he trace his illusion , stating , “ I require to grab some washy fiddling freshman and just tear them apart like a blooming beast . show them who is god . ”
Zed Nelson/Getty ImagesThe day after the massacre, Columbine High School students gather outside their school to pray and place flowers on the ground.
In a intro to a conference of psychologists years after the shot , Dwayne Fusilier of the FBI present his belief that , based on his homicidal illusion , skill at lying , and lack of compunction , “ Eric Harris was a budding new psychopath . ” In reception , one of the participants raise an objection , “ I mean he was a full - blown psychopath . ” A number of other psychologists agreed .
Preparing For “Judgement Day” At Columbine High School
Jefferson County Sheriff ’s Department via Getty ImagesFrom leave , Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold examine a saw - off shotgun at a jury-rigged lighting range not long before the Columbine shooting . March 6 , 1999 .
For a year before the Columbine shooting , Harris dedicate himself to building dozens of explosive : tube bombs and “ crickets ” made from CO2 canisters . He await into making napalm , and at one point in time tried to recruit Chris Morris into what he had planned for these explosive — play it off as a jape when the other refused .
Harris alsotook notesabout student movement and the number of loss in the shoal . Meanwhile , he research the Brady Bill and various loophole in gun laws , before finally , on November 22 , 1998 , unite Klebold in convincing an 18 - class - old mutual friend ( and after Klebold ’s prom date ) to corrupt two shotguns and a high carbine rifle for them at a grease-gun show . afterward , Klebold buy a semi - machinelike pistol from another champion behind the pizza shop .
Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty ImagesColumbine High School students and family members mourn during a memorial in Littleton’s Clement Park on the two-year anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
Although Harris claimed after their first gun purchase that they had crossed “ the decimal point of no return , ” he had not counted on a few complications . Just before New Year , the local hired gun shop called his house tell the gamy capacity magazines he ’d dictate for his rifle had arrive . The trouble was that his don picked up the phone , and Harris had to lay claim it was a wrong number .
The most unrelenting obstacle , however , was Klebold ’s mental state . Many time before the onslaught , Klebold compose about plans to vote out himself , including stealing one of Harris ’ pipe bomb and lather it to his neck opening . Several other journal entrance are sign “ Goodbye ” as if he expected them to be his last ones .
What changed between August 10 , 1998 — his last self-annihilation threat — and the approach on April 20 , 1999 , is unknown . At some point , Klebold perpetrate to the NBK plan , although perhaps he only think about it as an elaborately theatrical self-annihilation .
One of his last entriesreads : “ I m stuck in humanness . maybe going ‘ NBK ’ ( gawd ) w. eric is the way to break free . i hate this . ” The next-to-last formal Sir Frederick Handley Page in Klebold ’s journal , written five days before the onrush , terminate with : “ Time to croak , clip to be complimentary , time to bang . ” Nearly all the remaining pages are meet with drawings of his intended outfit and weapon .
Jefferson County Sheriff ’s Department via Getty ImagesEric Harris practices shooting a arm at a makeshift firing compass not long before the Columbine shot . March 6 , 1999 .
The couplet worked their final displacement at Blackjack Pizza on Friday , April 16 . Harris secured progression for them both to buy last - minute supplying . Klebold attended prom with a group of 12 friends on Saturday , while Harris went on a first and last date with a little girl he recently met .
That Monday , the original date for the onrush , Harris postponed the plan so he could corrupt more bullet from a friend . He had apparently bury that he had just turned 18 and no longer need a middle gentleman .
The Columbine Shooting Doesn’t Go According To Plan
Craig F. Walker / The Denver Post via Getty ImagesEvidence , including the propane bombs , presented to the public five years after the Columbine shooting . Feb. 26 , 2004 .
The next morning , April 20 , both boys got up and leave their houses by 5:30 a.m. to begin final preparation .
In some ways , the killers ’ writings facilitate decrypt the Columbine shooting not because of what they reveal about their emotion , but the contingent of what they had really want to do . From the outside , the massacre at Columbine High School looks like a school shot . With their notes , though , it ’s unmortgaged it was a disadvantageously bungled bombing .
The duffel old bag Eric Harris was have a bun in the oven when he blab to Brooks Brown contained one of several propane tankful metre bombs . Two were set in the cafeteria to convey down the roof and allow Harris and Klebold to charge educatee as they fled .
Brown had also mention his friend ’s car was parked far from its usual place . That was because both Harris and Klebold ’s cars were rigged to blow up as law , ambulances , and journalists go far , kill many in the process .
A final dud was place in a Mungo Park three mile from school , set to go off before the others . This , they hope , would draw away constabulary , buy time before the potency come and killed them . Suicide by fuzz was Harris and Klebold ’s intended finale .
As anyone familiar with the Columbine shot knows , none of that materialise .
Mark Leffingwell / Getty ImagesA heart - action scattergun and assault rifle used in the Columbine High School shot .
Because these bomb were so much bigger than the others , Harris and Klebold could not veil them at home . Instead , they were hastily constructed on the morning of the flak . Smart as both boys were , they had no idea how to wire detonators and give way to cipher it out in the circumscribed time dish out for their building . Thankfully , not one of these dud depart off .
With this fundamental bankruptcy in mind , the relaxation of the killers ’ actions take on Modern import . Apparently , Klebold got cold ft when the cafeteria did not explode . They were supposed to stand many yards from each other for an optimal firing range , but when the shooting started , the two were standing together at Klebold ’s assigned emplacement . From this , it can be infer that Harris had to win over Klebold to go through with the attack at the last minute . Even after that , Harris did most of the shooting .
Survivors and police expressed discombobulation about why the shooting abruptly stop over . About half an hour into the blast , Harris and Klebold were in the school library with nearly 50 people at their mercy . Then , they pass on , allowing the majority to break away . The next time they flash mass it was to bolt down themselves .
Jefferson County Sheriff ’s Office / Getty ImagesThe west entry to Columbine High School , with flags mark points where smoke case were found . April 20 , 1999 .
The turning point seems to be when , after killing one student in the depository library , Harris ’ shotgun recoiled into his face , conk out his olfactory organ . Security cameras show they then went to the cafeteria , trying and fail to set off the propane tankful with pipe bomb and shotgun blasts .
They then tried provoking police force by firing through the windows , but the officer neither strike them nor entered the building . last , Klebold and Harris returned to the library to watch their gondola bombs fizzle , before pick a spot with a view of the Rocky Mountains and shooting themselves in the capitulum .
The True Motives Behind The Columbine High School Massacre
David Butow / Corbis via Getty ImagesColumbine High School students pucker at a remembrance for the victims . May 1999 .
Compared with Harris and Klebold ’s ambitiousness , the Columbine High School flack was a everlasting loser .
earlier planned for April 19 — the anniversary of the Waco Siege and theOklahoma City Bombing — the attack , Harris hoped , would beat Timothy McVeigh ’s body tally in Oklahoma . He fantasized about planting bombs around Littleton and Denver , and in one diary entry write that if he and Klebold survived “ Judgement Day , ” they should highjack an airplane and dash it into New York City .
Eric Harris did not see himself as a good nipper pushed to ferocity . He want to be a domestic terrorist . In an seeming answer to his parents ’ concerns about his future , he write : “ THIS is what I require to do with my lifetime ! ”
Almost on the dot a year before the Columbine shot , Harris came the closest to explain why he would spud up a school . He was not attacking specific people or even Columbine High School itself . He was attacking what school stand for to him : the point of indoctrination into the society he despised , suppressing individuality and “ human nature . ”
“ [ School is ] societies room of turning all the young citizenry into good little robot and factory prole , ” he wrote on April 21 , 1998 , continuing , “ I will earlier die than betray my own thought . but before I go out this ugly piazza , I will pour down who ever I deam [ sic ] unfit for anything at all . especially life ”
So , why do n’t more people know this ?
The Columbine shot was among the first national calamity in the era of cell headphone and the 24 - time of day intelligence cycle . newsman were at the school interviewing traumatized stripling as the events unfolded . Some students , unable to get through to overload emergency services , began calling news station that then propagate their intelligibly unreliable eyewitness testimonial across the reality .
Klebold and Harris were two of 2,000 students at Columbine High School . Most interviewees did not know them , but that did not stop them from answering questions . From a few jumbled pieces , the blemished pop image get to form : Klebold was in the theater department , so he was gay and mock for it . Both boys wore deep coating during the attack , so they were in the Trench Coat Mafia .
Zed Nelson / Getty ImagesThe twenty-four hour period after the massacre , Columbine High School scholarly person gather outside their schooling to pray and direct flowers on the ground .
The police were another problem . The Jefferson County sheriff had only been in business office since January and he simply did not know how to handle the situation . or else of sending it SWAT teams , law held their margin until after Harris and Klebold had killed themselves .
Onevictim , Dave Sanders , was leave to bleed out due to the dim police force response , and multiple body were left where they were — two outside and uncovered overnight — for fear of “ booby trap . ” Some parent were not even told their children were kill . They learned about it in the newspaper .
Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post via Getty ImagesColumbine High School students and family member mourn during a commemoration in Littleton ’s Clement Park on the two - year anniversary of the Columbine shot .
Worse still was the dirty secret that Brooks Brown and his house shared almost at once : The police had been warned about Eric Harris . An affidavit for a hunt warrant had been pen . Not only could the Columbine shot have been prevented , it should have been .
As a result , resources were shifted from an probe to a blanket - up . On TV , the sheriff labeled Brooks Brown an confederate to silence him . Victims ’ home fought and miscarry in Colorado Margaret Court to get document liberate . The constabulary single file on Eric Harris locomote cryptically missing . The full facts of what happened and what caused the Columbine High School massacre were not unfreeze until 2006 , long after the public had moved on .
By then , the popular belief about what had happened on April 20 , 1999 were seared into the corporate consciousness . Today , most people still think Columbine could have been stopped if only someone had been a little nicer to Eric Harris — a humanizing level that deal over a truth too dreadful to think about .
After this look at the Columbine High School shooting , discover the widely misunderstood account of two of the massacre ’s victims : Cassie Bernall and Valeen Schnurr . Then , hear aboutRachel Scott , the first dupe of the Columbine shooting .
