Eric Harris

In 2019, Ty Hodges and a minor student at Pineywoods Community Academy in Lufkin, Texas created a detailed plan to commit a school shooting. Many of the notes created by Hodges and the minor had a resemblance to the notes of Harris and Klebold. Additionally, Hodges had done a school research project on the Columbine massacre.

By that time, Klebold had already arrived at the school in a separate car, and the two boys left two gym bags, each containing a 20-pound propane bomb, inside the cafeteria. Their original plans indicated that when these bombs detonated, Harris and Klebold would be camped out by their cars and shoot, stab and throw bombs at survivors of the initial explosion as they ran out of the school. At noon, this would be followed by bombs set up in the pair's cars detonating, killing first responders and other personnel. When these devices failed to detonate, Harris and Klebold launched a shooting attack against their classmates and teachers. It was the deadliest attack ever perpetrated at an American high school until the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. Harris was responsible for eight of the thirteen confirmed deaths (Rachel Scott, Daniel Rohrbough, teacher Dave Sanders, Steve Curnow, Cassie Bernall, Isaiah Shoels, Kelly Fleming, and Daniel Mauser), while Klebold was responsible for the remaining five (Kyle Velasquez, Matthew Kechter, Lauren Townsend, John Tomlin, and Corey DePooter). There were 24 injured (21 of them by the shooters), most in critical condition.

On February 2, 2017, Klebold posted a TED Talk titled, "My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story." As of August 2019, the video has over 6.6 million views. The site listed Klebold's occupation as "activist", and stated: "Sue Klebold has become a passionate agent working to advance mental health awareness and intervention."

In February 2016, Klebold published a memoir, titled A Mother's Reckoning, about her experiences before and after the massacre. It was co-written by Laura Tucker and included an introduction by National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon. It received very favorable reviews, including from the New York Times Book Review. It peaked at No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list.

The 2016 biographical film I'm Not Ashamed, based on the journals of Rachel Scott, includes glimpses of Eric Harris' and Dylan Klebold's lives and of interactions between them and other students at Columbine High School. Harris is played by David Errigo Jr. and Klebold is played by Cory Chapman.

A 2015 investigation by CNN identified "more than 40 people...charged with Columbine-style plots." A 2014 investigation by ABC News identified "at least 17 attacks and another 36 alleged plots or serious threats against schools since the assault on Columbine High School that can be tied to the 1999 massacre." Ties identified by ABC News included online research by the perpetrators into the Columbine shooting, clipping news coverage and images of Columbine, explicit statements of admiration of Harris and Klebold, such as writings in journals and on social media, in video posts, and in police interviews, timing planned to an anniversary of Columbine, plans to exceed the Columbine victim counts, and other ties.

In 2015, journalist Malcolm Gladwell writing in The New Yorker magazine proposed a threshold model of school shootings in which Harris and Klebold were the triggering actors in "a slow-motion, ever-evolving riot, in which each new participant's action makes sense in reaction to and in combination with those who came before."

The Tumblr fandom gained widespread media attention in February 2015 after three of its members conspired to commit a mass shooting at a Halifax mall on Valentine's Day. In 2017, two 15-year-old school boys from Northallerton in England were charged with conspiracy to murder after becoming infatuated with the crime and "hero-worshipping" Harris and Klebold.

Marilyn Manson was blamed by the media in the wake of the Columbine shooting, and responded to criticism in an interview with Michael Moore, in which he was asked, "If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine and the people in the community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?", to which he replied, "I wouldn't say a single word to them—I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did."

According to psychologist Peter Langman, Klebold displayed signs of schizotypal personality disorder – he struck many people as odd, was very shy, appeared to have had disturbed thought processes and constantly misused language in unusual ways as evidenced by his journal, considered notable due to Klebold's peers that often described him as very intelligent. He appeared to have been delusional, viewed himself as "god-like" and wrote about he was "made a human without the possibility of BEING human." He was also convinced that others hated him and felt like he was being conspired against, even though according to many reports, Klebold was loved by his family and plenty of friends.

In April 2009, Professor Aubrey Immelman, PhD of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, published a personality profile of Eric Harris, based on journal entries and personal communication. Immelman's profile believes the materials suggested behavior patterns consistent with a "malignant narcissism ... pathological narcissistic personality disorder with borderline and antisocial features, along with some paranoid traits, and unconstrained aggression". The report notes that such a profile should not be construed as a direct psychiatric diagnosis, which is based on face-to-face interviews, formal psychological testing, and collection of collateral information.

Sue Klebold, mother of Dylan Klebold, initially was in denial about Dylan's involvement in the massacre, believing he was tricked by Eric into doing it, among other things. Six months later, she saw the Basement Tapes made by Eric and Dylan, and acknowledged that Dylan was equally responsible for the killings. She spoke about the Columbine High School massacre publicly for the first time in an essay that appeared in the October 2009 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine. In the piece, Klebold wrote: "For the rest of my life, I will be haunted by the horror and anguish Dylan caused", and "Dylan changed everything I believed about myself, about God, about family, and about love." Stating that she had no clue of her son's intentions, she said, "Once I saw his journals, it was clear to me that Dylan entered the school with the intention of dying there." In Andrew Solomon's 2012 book Far from the Tree, she acknowledged that on the day of the massacre, when she discovered that Dylan was one of the shooters, she prayed he would kill himself. "I had a sudden vision of what he might be doing. And so while every other mother in Littleton was praying that her child was safe, I had to pray that mine would die before he hurt anyone else."

In the 2009 film April Showers, which was written and directed by Andrew Robinson, who was a senior at Columbine High School during the shooting, the single shooter, Ben Harris, is played by Benjamin Chrystak.

In November 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen imitated Columbine with a shooting in Jokela in Tuusula, Finland. He wore a shirt saying "Humanity is Overrated". In December 2007, a man killed two at a Youth with a Mission center in Arvada, Colorado and another two at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs before killing himself. He quoted Harris prior to the attack under the heading "Christianity is YOUR Columbine".

In 2007, the massacre was documented in an episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary series The Final Report.

In 2004, the shooting was dramatized in the documentary Zero Hour, in which Harris and Klebold are played by Ben Johnson and Josh Young, respectively.

The 2003 Gus Van Sant film Elephant depicts a fictional school shooting, though some of its details were based on the Columbine massacre, such as one scene in which one of the young killers walks into the evacuated school cafeteria and pauses to take a sip from a drink left behind, as Harris himself did during the shooting. In the film, the killers are called "Alex and Eric" after the actors who portray them, Alex Frost and Eric Deulen.

In the 2003 Ben Coccio film Zero Day, which was inspired by the Columbine shooting, the two shooters are played by Andre Kriegman and Cal Gabriel and called "Andre and Calvin" after their actors.

Also in 2003, the Uwe Boll film Heart of America: Home Room was released. The film's main plot focuses on two bullied students, Daniel Lynn and Barry Shultz, who plan to carry out a school shooting on the last day of school after being tortured by the school jocks. Barry, the main character, has second thoughts and quits at the last minute, while Daniel carries out the plan with a female accomplice, Dara McDermott. Barry is played by Michael Belyea, Daniel is played by Kett Turton, and Dara is played by Elisabeth Rosen. The film is believed to have been inspired by several shootings that are listed before the credits, Columbine being among them.

The 2002 Michael Moore documentary film Bowling for Columbine focuses heavily on a perceived American obsession with handguns, its grip on Jefferson County, Colorado, and its role in the shooting.

In April 2001, the families of more than 30 victims were given shares in a $2,538,000 settlement by the families of the perpetrators, and the two men convicted of supplying the weapons used in the massacre. The Harrises and the Klebolds contributed $1,568,000 to the settlement from their own homeowners' policies, the Maneses contributed $720,000, and the Durans contributed $250,000. The Harrises and the Klebolds were ordered to guarantee an additional $32,000 be available against any future claims. The Maneses were ordered to hold $80,000 against future claims, and the Durans were ordered to hold $50,000. One family had filed a $250-million lawsuit against the Harrises and Klebolds in 1999 and did not accept the 2001 settlement terms. A judge ordered the family to accept a $366,000 settlement in June 2003. In August 2003, the families of five other victims received undisclosed settlements from the Harrises and Klebolds.

In 2001, Charles Andrew Williams, the Santana High School shooter, reportedly told his friends that he was going to "pull a Columbine," though none of them took him seriously. In 2005, Jeff Weise, an American Indian who wore a trench coat, killed his grandfather, who was a police officer, and his girlfriend. He took his grandfather's weapon and his squad car, and drove to his former high school in Red Lake and murdered several students before killing himself. In an apparent reference to Columbine, he asked one student if they believed in God.

Harris and Klebold were initially reported to be members of a clique that was called the "Trenchcoat Mafia", although in fact they had no particular connection with the group, and did not appear in the group's photo in Columbine High's 1998 yearbook. Harris's father erroneously stated that his son was "a member of what they call the Trenchcoat Mafia" in a 9-1-1 call he made on April 20, 1999. Klebold attended the high school prom three days before the shootings with a classmate named Robyn Anderson.

In December 1998, Harris and Klebold made Hitmen for Hire, a video for a school project in which they swore, yelled at the camera, made violent statements, and acted out shooting and killing students in the hallways of Columbine High School. Both also displayed themes of violence in their creative writing projects; of a Doom-based story written by Harris on January 17, 1999, Harris's teacher said: "Yours is a unique approach and your writing works in a gruesome way — good details and mood setting."

On April 20, 1999, just weeks before Harris and Klebold were both due to graduate, Brooks Brown, who was smoking a cigarette outside during lunch break, saw Harris arrive at school. Brown had severed his friendship with Harris a year earlier after Harris had thrown a chunk of ice at his car windshield; Brown reconciled with Harris just prior to the shooting. Brown approached Harris near his car and scolded him for skipping his morning classes, because Harris was always serious about schoolwork and being on time. Harris replied, "It doesn't matter anymore." Harris followed up a few seconds later, "Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home." Brown, who felt uneasy, quickly left the school grounds. At 11:19 am, he heard the first gunshots after he had walked some distance away from the school, and informed the police via a neighbor's cell phone.

Harris and Klebold wrote much about how they would carry out the massacre, but less about why. A journal found in Harris's bedroom contained almost every detail that the boys planned to follow after 5:00 am on April 20, 1999. In journal entries, the pair often wrote about events such as the Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco siege, the Vietnam War and other similar events, including blurbs and notes on how they wished to "outdo" these events, focusing especially on what Timothy McVeigh did in Oklahoma City. They mentioned how they would like to leave a lasting impression on the world with this kind of violence.

An April 22, 1999 Washington Post article described Harris and Klebold:

The first copycat may have been the W. R. Myers High School shooting, just eight days after Columbine, when a 14-year-old Canadian student went into his school at lunchtime with a sawed-off .22 rifle under his dark blue trench coat, and opened fire, killing one student. A month after the massacre, Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia, had a shooting which Attorney General Janet Reno called a Columbine "copycat". A friend of Harris and Klebold, Eric Veik, was arrested after threatening to "finish the job" at CHS in October 1999.

In a self-made video recording sent to the news media by Seung-Hui Cho prior to his committing the Virginia Tech shootings, he referred to the Columbine massacre as an apparent motivation. In the recording, he wore a backwards baseball cap and referred to Harris and Klebold as "martyrs." Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, had "an obsession with mass murders, in particular, the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado."

In the 1999 black comedy Duck! The Carbine High Massacre, which is inspired by the Columbine shooting, the two shooters are played by William Hellfire and Joey Smack, who also co-wrote, directed and produced the film. The shooters are named "Derrick and Derwin", a play on Harris' and Klebold's first names.

On January 30, 1998, Harris and Klebold broke into a locked van to steal computers and other electronic equipment. An officer pulled over the duo driving away. Harris shortly after admitted to the theft. They were later charged with mischief, breaking and entering, trespassing, and theft. They both left good impressions on juvenile officers, who offered to expunge their criminal records if they agreed to attend a diversionary program which included community service and psychiatric treatment. Harris was required to attend anger management classes where, again, he made a favorable impression. The boys' probation officer discharged them from the program a few months ahead of schedule for good behavior. Of Harris, it was remarked that he was "a very bright individual who is likely to succeed in life", while Klebold was said to be intelligent, but "needs to understand that hard work is part of fulfilling a dream."

Harris began keeping a journal in April 1998, a short time after the pair was convicted of breaking into a van, for which each received ten months of juvenile intervention counseling and community service in January 1998. They began to formulate plans then, as reflected in their journals.

After the massacre, it was widely believed Harris and Klebold were part of a clique in school called the "Trenchcoat Mafia", a group of misfits in the school who supposedly rebelled against the jocks. This turned out to be untrue, as neither Harris nor Klebold had any affiliation with the group. Others attributed bullying, mental illness or poor parenting to the attack. The answer proved not to be simple to investigators, but the pair's journals and recordings gave insight into Harris and Klebold's mindsets. The FBI concluded that Harris was a brooding psychopath, who showed in his journal writings a lack of empathy, narcissism and unconstrained aggression. Klebold, however, was concluded as an angry depressive. Klebold showed in his journal writings great agony and feeling of no self-worth, who wanted to get revenge on those who did him wrong. Since neither Harris or Klebold were ever diagnosed with any mental illnesses prior to the attack, it is unclear if they suffered from any said illnesses. Klebold's mother believes the pair had a "magnetic attraction" to one another. The FBI's conclusion is often disputed, such as people arguing Harris was also depressed because he took the anti-depressant Luvox; and Klebold was the first to mention a killing spree in a 1997 journal entry. The motive for the attack remains inconclusive.

The Harris family lived in rented accommodations for the first three years that they lived in the Littleton area. While Harris was in 7th grade, he met Dylan Klebold. In 1996, the Harris family purchased and settled at a house south of Columbine High School. Eric's older brother, Kevin, attended college at the University of Colorado.

Harris entered Columbine High School in 1995 as a freshman. Columbine had just gone through a major renovation. From all accounts, he had many friends and was on the soccer team for his freshman and sophomore year. Harris, during his freshman year, met Tiffany Typher, who was in his German class. Typher later recounted that Harris quickly wooed her. Harris asked her to homecoming and she accepted. After the event, it appeared that Typher was no longer interested in seeing Harris anymore, for reasons never disclosed. When Typher refused to socialize with Harris again, Harris staged a fake 'suicide', sprawling on the ground with fake blood splashed all over him. When Typher saw him she began to scream for help, at which point Harris and his friends began laughing, prompting Typher to storm off, shouting at Harris to get psychological help.

The shooters also possessed a TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun, which had a long history. The manufacturer of the TEC-DC9 first sold it to Miami-based Navegar Incorporated. It was then sold to Zander's Sporting Goods in Baldwin, Illinois, in 1994. The gun was later sold to Thornton, Colorado, firearms dealer Larry Russell. In violation of federal law, Russell failed to keep records of the sale, yet he determined that the purchaser of the gun was twenty-one years of age or older. He was unable to identify the pictures of Anderson, Harris or Klebold shown to him by police after the shooting. Two men, Mark Manes and Philip Duran, were convicted of supplying weapons to the two.

Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) and Dylan Bennet Klebold (/ˈ k l iː b oʊ l d / ; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) were an American mass murder duo who killed 13 people and wounded 24 others on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. Harris and Klebold simultaneously committed suicide in the library, where they had killed ten of their victims. This became known as the Columbine High School massacre. Harris and Klebold were seniors at the school, making the attack just weeks before the pair were due to graduate. The Napa Valley Register has called them "cultural icons" for disenfranchised youth. Harris and Klebold's shooting spree still remains one of the most infamous shootings in history. The shooting would also go on to cause a massive moral panic in society, leading more schools to implement zero tolerance policies.

Harris and Klebold were both born in 1981. While Klebold stayed situated all of his life in Colorado, Harris moved around frequently due to his father being a U.S. Air Force transport pilot. Harris finally settled in Littleton, Colorado, in 1993, when his father was forced to retire. Harris and Klebold had met sometime while they were in the 7th grade at Ken Caryl Middle School. Over time, they became increasingly close. By the time they were juniors, they were described as inseparable. There are differing reports: some say Harris and Klebold were very unpopular students and frequent targets of bullying, while others say they weren't near the bottom of the school's social hierarchy and each had many friends. The pair were known to have near opposite personalities. Harris was described by his peers as more outgoing and charismatic, while Klebold was known to be more quiet and shy. They were both arrested in January 1998 for breaking into a van and stealing equipment. They got into a diversionary program, to help the boys stay out of any more trouble by going to frequent meetings with their psychiatrists and doing community service, while expunging their criminal records if they passed, which they successfully did at the beginning of 1999. From their journal entries, Harris and Klebold had seemed to begin planning the attack by May 1998. Throughout the next year, Harris and Klebold meticulously built explosives and gathered an arsenal of weapons. The pair left behind many journal writings and home videos, foreshadowing the massacre and explaining their actions, with what they hoped to achieve. They would often cite the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing as an inspiration and as a goal to surpass the bombing's casualties.

Eric David Harris was born on April 9, 1981 in Wichita, Kansas. Eric's parents were both born in Colorado but while his father Wayne Harris was working in the Air Force as a transport pilot, Wayne held 11 different positions at six different bases in Ohio, Michigan and New York. Plattsburgh, New York was the last place the family moved to before Wayne's forced retirement from the military in 1993 due to cutbacks. His mother, Katherine Ann Poole, was a homemaker. The family moved to Littleton, Colorado, in July 1993.

Dylan Bennet Klebold was born on September 11, 1981 in Lakewood, Colorado to Thomas and Susan Klebold. His parents were pacifists and attended a Lutheran church with their children. Both Klebold and his older brother, Byron, attended confirmation classes in accordance with the Lutheran tradition. As had been the case with his older brother, Klebold was named after a renowned poet, Dylan Thomas.