Two gunmen in black trench coats and ski masks held police at bay for more than four hours April 20, in a rampage that left 15 dead and 23 wounded at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Their killing spree ended in the school library, where the pair—later identified as CHS students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17—apparently committed suicide. Roughly 45 students were inside the library when the shooting began; many survived by hiding under desks and tables.
“The library was one of the last rooms we entered, and it was the most gruesome,” County Sheriff John Stone said in an April 21 Reuters report. Twelve bodies, including those of the gunmen, were discovered there. Reports said explosives had been set off. The body of one faculty member was found outside the library, but library staffers were reportedly not among the victims. During the siege, an injured male student was seen hanging from a broken window in the library and dropping several feet to rescuers.
It is the worst school shooting incident in U.S. history and the seventh in a series of fatal attacks that have occurred since 1996.
Posted April 26, 1999.