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| Friends of John Tomlin hug in the sanctuary of the Foothills Baptist Church where his memorial service was held. (Susan Biddle The Washington Post) |
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 25, 1999; Page A1
LITTLETON, Colo. April 24 – Determined to exact revenge on students who had ridiculed them for being different, the two suspects in Tuesday's deadly shooting rampage at Columbine High School meticulously planned their attack for a year with the intent of killing as many people as possible and burning down the school, according to a diary found in one of their homes.
The handwritten journal laid out a detailed blueprint for the savage attack that took the lives of 12 Columbine students and a popular teacher. It included maps, hand signals that the boys could use to communicate with each other, hiding places, and a time line that called for an assault at lunch hour in the cafeteria in order to maximize the number of victims.
The diary and other evidence revealed by police today offer the most detailed account to date of the bloody rampage and the motivations of suspects Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who apparently shot themselves after slaying their final 10 victims in the school library.
"They were going for a big kill," said Jefferson County Sheriff John P. Stone at an early afternoon news briefing near the school. "They wanted to do as much damage as they possibly could and destroy the school and destroy as many children as they could."
Stone placed some blame on the parents of the two suspects, since police also found bomb-making materials and a shotgun barrel lying in plain view in the bedroom of one of the boys.
"The parents should have been aware of it," said Stone.
The sheriff's comments on the suspects' parents – Susan and Thomas Klebold and Wayne and Kathy Harris – marked the first time since the shooting that law enforcement authorities here have publicly discussed the failure of parental supervision as a partial cause of the bloodshed.
Referring to the discovery of weapons in the bedroom of one of the suspects, Stone said: "A lot of peoples' kids have stuffed animals in there and baseball mitts, but not pipe bombs. I think parents should be held accountable for their kids' actions."
The parents of Klebold and Harris have issued brief public statements of regret but have otherwise remained in seclusion. Both families have been interviewed by police, though no details from those conversations have been revealed.
Investigators poring over the diary and other material seized from the suspects' homes have also concluded that Harris and Klebold were fascinated with Adolf Hitler and wartime Germany and timed their attack on the 110th anniversary of the German leader's birth. "It was a Nazi kind of thing," said Stone, who did not say in which house the diary or other evidence was found.
The diary provides rich details on the suspects' motive for the shooting spree and reinforces the impressions of many of their fellow students that Harris and Klebold – part of a clique of students known as the "Trenchcoat Mafia" who dressed in black and were fascinated by military themes – felt ostracized and put down by athletes at Columbine. "It appears the whole thing of this was a hate because we want to be different, we want to be strange, we don't want jocks putting us down," said Stone. "The whole thing was this German Nazi theme."
Stone also said investigators – more than 150 of them are actively working on the case – are now more convinced than ever that Harris and Klebold had one or more accomplices in planning and perhaps carrying out the assault on the high school.
Police have interviewed hundreds of witnesses and collected about 2,000 pieces of evidence, from computer data and telephone records to the smallest scraps of metal, searching not only for a motive but for a better fix on whether the two boys had accomplices.
"I suspect some of them are over the age of 18 because we had weapons purchased that a juvenile can't buy," said Stone.
"I think other people did know about it," he said. "Whether it's three, four, five suspects – we don't know."
But police said they are still trying to determine whether there was a third person wearing a white T-shirt who some witnesses claim they saw the day of the attack. Police now believe that either Klebold or Harris shed his trench coat and had a white shirt underneath. When the bodies were found, one of the suspects did not have a trench coat on.
"It's very possible, we're thinking now, that maybe the trench coat was shed at some point," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis.
Investigators are continuing to interview and re-interview students and others who knew the two boys as they widen their search for additional suspects. Authorities are also taking precautions at area schools after a report that Harris had threatened more violence in a supposed e-mail to police received after the shooting.
The Denver Rocky Mountain News reported today that Harris wrote, "You may think the horror ends with the bullet in my head – but you wouldn't be so lucky . . . You have until April 26th."
Davis said investigators have determined that the e-mail – received two days after the shooting – was not written by either suspect. But he also said investigators have not determined it to be a hoax and that it is possible a friend of the two suspects is signaling his intent to cause more bloodshed. "Precautions have been taken," given the threat, he said.
Yesterday's disclosures came on a day when hundreds of people, family, friends and total strangers packed a church about a half mile from Columbine for a mournful farewell to Rachel Scott.
Scores of Scott's friends signed her pink casket before the service. Then, through tears and sobs, Scott, a 17-year-old junior killed in Tuesday's shooting spree, was eulogized as a vivacious and religiously passionate person who had the courage to be herself even while many other adolescents defined themselves through their friends.
"She was a leader, a self-confident leader," the Rev. Billy Epperhart told the mourners at Trinity Christian Center, scheduled to be the site of at least two more funerals in the coming days for victims of the Columbine massacre. "She was comfortable with herself."
Scott was known both at Columbine and her church not only for her talent in poetry and drama but also for her deep religious conviction. A youth minister at her church, the Rev. Barry Palser, said that he believes Scott was singled out by the gunmen because of her faith.
"Rachel was a passionate Christian. Inside that library they knew what they were doing. They knew what they were going after. That's what Hitler did," Palser said in an interview. "We consider her to be a Christian American martyr."
Meanwhile, thousands of people flocked to a park adjacent to the school grounds, bearing flowers, messages, poems and other offerings as they streamed to what has turned into a series of huge, makeshift memorials to the victims.
A red Acura belonging to Scott and a gold Chevy pickup that was the pride of victim John Tomlin are almost totally buried in flowers, teddy bears, balloons, cards and banners.
Ignoring a sea of mud, the mourners filed silently by the memorials, searching for the right place to leave their remembrances. Even with such a large crowd, the park was almost silent.
"To Rachel . . . and all those who lost their lives," read one card, "may you find comfort in the Lord." Fourteen blue-uniformed firefighters from Littleton arrived at mid-morning to lay down carpets and straw on the muddy knoll. Then they gathered in a circle to pray.
Speaking of the Denver area students who have been "robbed of so much innocence," one firefighter said, "I pray you'll allow them to overcome the fear and continue their education." Another prayed for the family of dead suspect Eric Harris. "They, too, are victims," he said. "They, too, lost a son."
Their prayers concluded, the firefighters then sang "Amazing Grace," and a group of Columbine High School students nearby collapsed into sobs.
Staff writer Michael A. Fletcher contributed to this report.
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
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