Columbine High School Massacre - Immediate Aftermath

Immediate Aftermath

On April 21 bomb squads combed the high school. At 10:00 a.m., the bomb squad declared the building safe for officials to enter. By 11:30 a.m., a spokesman of the sheriff declared the investigation underway. Thirteen of the bodies were still inside the high school as investigators photographed the building.

At 2:30 p.m., a press conference was held by Jefferson County District Attorney David Thomas and Sheriff John Stone, at which they said that they suspected others had helped plan the shooting. Formal identification of the dead had not yet taken place, but families of the children thought to have been killed had already been notified. Throughout the late afternoon and early evening, the bodies were gradually removed from the school and taken to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office to be identified and autopsied. By 5:00 p.m., the names of many of the dead were known. An official statement was released, stating that there were 15 confirmed deaths and 27 injuries related to the massacre.

On April 30 high-ranking officials of Jefferson County and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office met to decide if they should reveal that Michael Guerra, a Sheriff's Office detective, had drafted an affidavit for a search warrant of Harris's residence a year before the shootings, based on his previous investigation of Harris's website and activities. They decided not to disclose this information at a press conference held on April 30, nor did they mention it in any other way. Over the next two years, Guerra's original draft and investigative file documents were lost. Their loss was termed "troubling" by a Grand Jury convened after the file's existence was reported in April 2001.

In the months following the shooting, considerable media attention focused upon Cassie Bernall, who had been killed by Eric Harris in the library and who Harris was reported to have asked "Do you believe in God?" immediately prior to her murder. Bernall was reported to have responded "Yes" before being killed. Valeen Schnurr claims that this exchange was with her, and Emily Wyant, the only living witness to Bernall's death, confirms that Bernall did not have this discussion. Bernall and Rachel Scott were regarded as Christian martyrs by Evangelical Christians. The official investigation attributed the statement to survivor Valeen Schnurr. Despite this conclusion, student witness Joshua Lapp maintains that it was Cassie Bernall who was asked about her beliefs and responded "yes" before being shot. However, Lapp was unable to correctly point out the where Bernall was located, and was himself closer to Schnurr during the shootings. Another witness, Craig Scott, whose sister Rachel Scott was also portrayed as a Christian martyr, claimed that the discussion was with Cassie Bernall. When asked to point to where he heard the conversation coming from, he pointed to where Schnurr was shot.