Columbine High School massacre - Warning signs - Encyclopedia II

Early warning signs regarding the attacks first surfaced in 1996, when Eric Harris created a private website on America Online. The original site was set up to host Doom levels that he and Klebold had created, mainly for friends. Throughout the year, Harris began a primitive blog on the site, which included jokes and small journal entries concerning his thoughts on parents, school, and friends. By the end of the year, the site contained instructions on how to cause mischief, as well as instructions on how to make explosives, and logs of the mischief he and Klebold were causing. Beginning in early 1997, the blog postings began to show the first signs of Harris' ever growing anger against society.

Harris' site had few visitors, and did not become an issue until late 1997, when Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigator Michael Guerra was notified of the site after the parents of Harris' former friend, Brooks Brown, discovered that Harris was posting death threats aimed at their son. Guerra discovered the website also contained violent threats directed at the students and teachers who attended Columbine High School. Other material included blurbs Harris had written concerning his hatred of society in general and his desire to kill those who annoyed him. As the date of the shooting neared, Harris also began noting the completion of pipe bombs on his site, as well as a gun count and "hit list" of individuals he wished to target, although it never mentioned his overall plot.^[3] As Harris had admitted to having explosives, Guerra decided to write a draft affidavit for a search warrant of the Harris household, but it was never filed. The existence of the affidavit was not revealed to the public until September 2001.

After the release of the affidavit, a series of grand jury investigations were launched into the cover-up activities of the Jefferson County officials. The investigation revealed that high ranking officials of Jefferson County had come together a few days after the massacre to discuss the release of the affidavit to the public. It was decided that because the affidavit's contents lacked the necessary probable cause to have supported the issuance of a search warrant for the Harris household by a judge, it would be best not to disclose the affidavit's existence at an upcoming press conference. Following the press conference, the original Guerra documents disappeared. In September 1999, a Jefferson County investigator failed to find the documents during a secret search of the county's computer system. A second attempt in late 2000 found copies of the document within the Jefferson County archives. The documents were reconstructed and released to the public in September 2001, but the original document is still missing. The final grand jury investigation was released in September 2004.^[4]

On January 30, 1998, both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were caught with computer equipment that had been stolen from a parked van near Littleton, Colorado. Both were arrested and attended a joint court hearing where a judge decided, based on their lack of moral judgement, that the two needed psychiatric help. Harris and Klebold avoided prosecution for the robbery by participating in a "diversion program" that involved counseling and community service at a local youth recreation center. Both feigned regret in order to obtain an early release, but Harris had relished the opportunity to perform. He wrote an ingratiating letter to his victim offering empathy, rather than just apologies. During this time he would often boast about faking remorse, and applauded himself at his deception in journal entries.^[5] It is believed that shortly after being released from psychiatric care in April 1998, Harris and Klebold began to plot the attacks as a form of retaliation.

During his evaluation by doctors at the program, Harris was prescribed the anti-depressant Luvox. Some analysts have argued that this medication may have contributed to Harris' actions, and claimed that side-effects of these drugs include increased aggression and loss of empathy.^[6] A correlation is claimed between "school shooters" whose medical history has been made public and the use or recent discontinuation of such medications. Other researchers have pointed out that such claims are not based upon scientific testing.

Shortly after his and Klebold's court hearing, Harris' blog disappeared and his website was reverted back to its original purpose of posting user created levels for the game Doom. It is speculated Harris did this because the mother of Brooks Brown had gotten him into trouble with his parents after her ordeal with the site. It was at this time that Harris began to write out his thoughts and plans in a paper journal. Despite this, Harris still dedicated a section of his website to posting his progress on the collection of guns and the building of the bombs used in the attack. After its existence was released to the public, AOL permanently deleted the website from its servers.^[7]

Both shooters began keeping journals of their progress soon after their release from the psychiatric center. The pair also documented their arsenal with video tapes which were kept secret.^[8]

Journal entries revealed that the pair had an elaborate plan for a major bombing rivaling that of Oklahoma City. The entries contained blurbs about ways to escape to Mexico, hijacking an aircraft at Denver International Airport and crashing into a building in New York City, as well as details about the attacks. The pair hoped that after setting off bombs in the cafeteria, they would rampage through the school and shoot any survivors, then continue their attack on surrounding houses as neighbors came out to see the commotion. This original plan failed when their main explosives failed to detonate.^[9]

The pair also kept videos that were used mainly as documentation of explosives, ammunition, and weapons they had acquired illegally. In these videos, the shooters also revealed all the elaborate and creative ways the two had thought up to hide their arsenals in their own homes, as well as the ways they would deceive their parents about their activities. Some videos contained footage of the pair during href = "http://www.experiencefestival.com/1998">1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 9 x 19 mm, 9-1-1, Zero Hour, Adolf Hitler, America Online, April 19, April 20, April 21, April 30,

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Warning signs", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page