Shooter at an American school. The schoolboy brought weapons to the class, wounded the teacher and was detained. He wanted to repeat “Columbine. Hooliganism case
A pre-arranged attack by two high school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on the rest of the students and staff at their school using small arms and improvised explosive devices on April 20, 1999, on Hitler's birthday. The terrorists turned out to be Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both students at the school. In terms of the number of victims, the tragedy once ranked third among the massacres in US educational institutions.
The first signs of aggression began to appear in 1996, when Eric Harris registered a personal website on the company's server. By the end of the year, the site already contained instructions on how to harm others and make explosives, as well as stories about all the troubles that Harris and Klebold. In early 1997, the blog began to show signs of Harris's growing anger toward society for the first time.
Due to the low number of visitors, Harris's website did not raise alarm and fear until late 1997, when Dylan Klebold gave the address to Brooks Brown, a former friend of Harris. On the website, the young man found numerous death threats directed at him. Brown's mother contacted Jefferson County Police on numerous occasions, and Investigator Michael Guerra was aware of the site's existence.
Future terrorists filmed videos demonstrating that they had weapons. Records showed that the boys were preparing a plan to bomb the school, rivaling the Oklahoma City bombing. The diaries also contained ideas about escaping to Mexico, hijacking an airplane from Denver International Airport and using it to blow up a building in New York.
Harris and Klebold planned to detonate bombs in the school cafeteria at the time when there would be the largest number of people - several hundred. The optimal time for this was determined on the basis of observations and records made in advance. The attackers hoped that after the canteen bombs detonated, they would shoot the surviving students and teachers on their way to the exit. Then, when ambulances, firefighters, police and journalists began to arrive at the school, the teenagers' car bombs were expected to go off and kill people outside. However, the bombs in the school cafeteria and cars did not go off.
On the day of the tragedy, the young men met at Harris's car near the school, took two 9-kilograms (each based on a propane cylinder), after which they entered the school cafeteria a few minutes before the first lunch break and placed several bags with bombs there. When the bombs did not detonate, they began chaotic gunfire, causing a brutal massacre in the library. Leaving the library, the young men went to the area with offices. They looked into many offices through the glass and met their eyes with the students who were hiding in them, but did not try to break into them. According to witnesses, the behavior of Hariss and Klebold seemed aimless. The disciples hiding in the cafeteria heard one of the attackers say: “Today the world will end. We will die today. "
A SWAT team and police quickly arrived at the scene, trying to evacuate and rescue the schoolchildren. Due to the shooting covering the evacuation, witnesses were unable to pinpoint when Harris and Klebold committed suicide.
It is worth noting that this shocking event spawned and inspired about 9 followers (for example, on April 16, 2007, a 23-year-old student from South Korea Cho Seung Hee opened fire with two pistols, first in a student dormitory, and then in the educational building of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, killing 32 and injuring 25 more people, the shooter committed suicide in one of the auditoriums. In his farewell video, he mentioned "the martyrs Eric and Dylan")
School photography 
From CCTV cameras 
Suicide 
Funeral 
Columbine was not the first
The Columbine High School incident was not the first shooter in history. Violence and manifestations of cruelty were there before. For example, in 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer unloaded 30 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. She killed the director and injured many people, including children. Cause? Brenda just didn't like Mondays.
Brenda Spencer
schoolgirl
Another case. In 1989, Patrick Edward Petrie armed himself with an AK-47 and came to the Cleveland school, but this time in Stockton. There he shot more than a hundred times at children and teachers. As a result, five children were killed and 29 were injured. It is noted that the victims were mainly from Southeast Asia. Having finished the reprisal, Petri fired a bullet into himself. Acquaintances of the killers noted that he had a psychiatric disorder, "hatred of everything," and racist views regarding Vietnamese immigrants.
In general, before "Columbine" there were more than ten bloody shooters in American schools, but for some reason, teenagers around the world began to copy Harris and Klebold, and not Petrie or Spencer.
Bowling for "Columbine"
In April 1999, American society split into "before" and "after". The watershed was the same massacre that would later become the most famous case of shooting in history. Two teenagers entered the cafeteria at Columbine School, planted explosives, and then began pouring lead on everyone they saw. During the fatal incident, 13 people died, 24 were injured. Not the bloodiest numbers, but it was the April events that later formed the basis for many films, books and songs: from Roger Moore's documentary to Eminem's lines in I’M Back and Rap God.
Eric Harris
student of the school
Because the shooting of Harris and Klebold is not just the behavior of two deranged teenagers. A whole ideology is built behind them. Judging by the diaries they both kept, the criminals were different in character. Harris dreamed of militarism, the ideas of natural selection and hard sex with classmates. Klebold drew flowers in his diary, sighed about unrequited love and thought a lot about death. In general, these guys personified two main teenage psychologies: all-consuming hatred and languid anguish. It's no surprise that, after so many years, today's adolescents see killers as soulmates - the essence of youthful suffering never changes.
Dylan Klebold
student of the school
The imitators also liked the "raincoat mafia" aesthetic that had been ridiculed by the assassins' classmates. A long coat on a thin body, army boots, heavy rock from speakers, complete nihilism and a powerful interest in the orders of Nazi Germany. The explosive mixture of landmarks that makes his admirer "not like everyone else" is perhaps the perfect recipe for the teenage outsider. The shots, where the cinematic - what is already there - guys with weapons in their hands are spreading the cafeteria, even now they walk in the publics of the social network "VKontakte". When Gus Van Sant was filming his "Elephant", he didn't have to invent anything - he just dressed up teenagers in black clothes and there was an explosion.
The very idea that this world of popular and beautiful schoolchildren may be subject to the revenge of an outsider dressed in a black hoodie will resonate at any time. As long as there are outsiders, there are black robes and there are weapons from which to carry revenge. The schoolchildren from "Columbine" could not fail to have followers.
Shooting all over the world
One of the bloodiest shooters in the United States happened in 2007 - eight years after Columbine. A Virginia Polytechnic student named Cho Seung Hee walked into the campus with a gun at the ready. There he killed 32 people and wounded 25 more. After that, the student committed suicide. Cho Seung Hee had mental disorder- the killer was subject to outbursts of aggression.
Another bloody tragedy occurred five years ago - at the Sandy Hook School, Connecticut. Adam Lanza stepped over his teens - he was 20, but he followed the whole "procedure" according to the Columbine canons. First, Adam shot his mother, then dropped into elementary school - there Lanza killed 20 small children and six adults. The school principal was also hit by the bullets. Of course, it soon became clear that the killer had mental problems: at the age of 13, Adam was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.
It is a mistake to think that shootings only happen in the United States. Yes, there are all the conditions for mass executions in schools - free distribution of weapons, but a ban on carrying them on the territory of state institutions. However, the bloody fashion has long spilled over the borders of the States.
Back in 2002, a resident of the German town of Erfurt entered the building of the local gymnasium, where he had previously studied, until he was expelled due to a false certificate of illness. The expulsion put an end to the boy's future career, so he decided to take revenge. The killer shot 16 people until he stumbled upon former teacher- after talking with the teacher, the teenager shot himself.
In Sweden, there was a similar case, multiplied by racial intolerance. 21-year-old Anton Lundin-Pettersson was fond of Nazism, hated immigrants and liked pictures of Adolf Hitler on Facebook. In October 2015, he opened the doors of the Krunan public school. Anton chose the school for a reason: it was attended by about 90% of "newcomers", mainly from Somalia. Before entering the building, the assassin put on a black cloak and mask (to look like), and also armed himself with a sword. In total, he brought death to three people: a 20-year-old teacher's assistant, a 15-year-old schoolboy and a 42-year-old mathematician. Eyewitnesses noted that Anton was aiming at "people with a dark skin color."
School attacks also occurred in Finland, France and Estonia. In many cases, the aggressors knew about Columbine and deliberately imitated the style of American assassins.
Came to Russia
As you can understand, the cult did not bypass Russia either - the case in the Perm school was not the first when teenagers were inspired by Harris and Klebold. On the morning of September 5, 2017, 15-year-old Mikhail P from No. 1 Ivanteevka near Moscow brought an air gun and a kitchen hatchet to the classroom. He is a computer science teacher with whom he was in conflict. The woman received a head injury. Then the teenager went to the auditorium, where the second half of his 9 "A" class was sitting, to deal with long-term offenders. The attacker wore a black cloak and dreamed of militarism, which aroused ridicule from his classmates; Michael wanted revenge. Fortunately, most of the students managed to escape. As a result, only three people were injured: a teacher and two schoolchildren who jumped out of the windows.
Michael is not just a duet from "Columbine" in appearance- he completely shared their philosophy and even called himself on the social network "VKontakte" Mike Klebold. On the page, the attacker posted videos and photos with idols, and he always told his friends that he wanted to repeat the path of the two murderers.
V modern history The US Columbine massacre has a special place. The massacre carried out by two teenagers shocked the whole country. The event led to a public controversy over violent video games and permission to purchase firearms.
Columbine School in Colorado was no different from thousands of similar educational institutions across the country. Friends Eric and Dylan studied here in the last grade. They were distinguished by their difficult temperaments and strange habits. Years before the Columbine High School massacre took place, the students ended up in police custody for hooliganism and computer theft.
Young people were in conflict with their peers. Eric Harris went to see a psychiatrist because he was diagnosed with depression. He was taking medication that could have a negative effect on his behavior. Friends blogged on the Internet, where they posted amateur videos related to the production of explosives and weapons.
A clear action plan was developed
On April 20, 1999, Eric and Dylan were planning an explosion at their own school. To do this, they have been secretly manufacturing various bombs for several months. According to their plan, they were to plant explosives in the school cafeteria and go outside. After the detonator went off, the shooters were supposed to open fire on the students and staff who ran out in panic. In total, the friends were going to kill up to five hundred people.
If the bombs were crafted by Eric and Dylan, then they had to go to the trick to get the weapon. None of the shooters had yet reached the age of majority, so they asked a friend, who had gone to Denver, to buy the barrels. The girl was unaware of the plans of Hariss and Klebold.
The beginning of a terrible day on April 20, 1999
On April 20, 1999, friends came to their school. They went to the cafeteria, where they quietly set detonator bombs, and then hurried out into the street. However, the explosion did not happen at the appointed time. At first, Harris and Klebold decided to wait a few more minutes for reassurance. However, when and after that nothing happened, they switched to plan "B".
It consisted in the fact that the shooters took weapons from their car and went to the classes to arrange a massacre. Thus began the Columbine High School massacre. When Harris took his gym bag with him, he was greeted by a schoolmate who asked why he had skipped class. Instead of an intelligible answer, Eric told his friend: “I like you. Leave. Go home. " Within a minute, this guy heard the first shots.
The first victims of the shooter
The first victims of the shooters were a couple who were sitting on the lawn in front of the school. The girl died from bullet wounds immediately, and her friend later became disabled. After that, the shooters opened fire indiscriminately at the guys who were in sight. So three friends were seriously injured, who decided that the high school students were just playing them.
In the future, the massacre at the Columbine School moved inside it. The shooters entered the building from an emergency entrance. Once in the west wing, they began to shoot those in the corridor. The next targets were the students in the nearby offices. One of the teachers went to the library, from where she called 911. Soon the police found out about the incident. The outfit went to school.
When the police arrived, Klebold and Hariss were already inside the building. The officers managed to spot the shooters through the window, after which a firefight ensued. However, not a single person was injured or injured.
Tragedy played out in the library
At this time, friends were heading to the library. Here they killed the most people. 10 students became their victims. They all hid under the tables when Dylan Klebold and his companion entered the room. However, this did not save them. Here, shooting at the US Columbine School was fought to kill. The killers came close to their victims and shot them in cold blood. The teenagers scoffed at their wounded and terrified peers, asking them tricky questions about their desire to die and their belief in God. The shooters were clearly enjoying the scene. According to the recollections of surviving eyewitnesses, Klebold and Harris constantly laughed and joked with each other.
In addition, the comrades took carbon dioxide bombs with them, which they decided to use right in the library. One of them was thrown under the table where a school student was hiding. A dozen shots were fired on some of the victims. When the friends left the library twenty minutes later, 12 people had already been killed at the school. Another teacher bled to death and died after a while. Thus, Klebold and Harris killed 13 people. The death toll appeared in the media mass media just a few hours after the tragedy.
Friends move to the dining room
The shooters went down to the dining room, where the unexploded bombs were still kept. Eyewitnesses recalled that even in the library, one of their friends said that they would blow up the school anyway. Apparently, they went to the cafeteria to finally activate the explosives stored there. CCTV cameras worked in the room, which recorded the guys in the last minutes of their lives. The comrades racked their brains over how to detonate the bombs. They had a Molotov cocktail with them, which was produced in the garage during the preparations for the attack on the school.
Harris threw the bottle at the bombs. Friends hurriedly left the premises, expecting an explosion. It did happen, but its power was not nearly as deadly as the students had hoped. A surveillance camera recorded the moment when a fire began in the dining room, which emerged after the explosion of a fireball from a bomb.
The killers committed suicide
In the meantime, the evacuation of students was organized on the street, who were injured even before the shooters were in the building. The police worked out a plan of action. Special forces arrived at the scene. The situation was aggravated by the fact that no one knew the exact number of attackers on the school. Initially, the police believed they were dealing with an organized terrorist attack involving a dozen people.
When the friends left the cafeteria, they headed back to the top floor. From there, the last skirmish began with the police on the street. Friends fired until they had almost no cartridges left. Then the shooting at the US Columbine School ended, Hariss and Klebold went to the next room, where they committed suicide.
Storming the school
After the noise in the school subsided, the police still decided to storm. Special forces and sappers were sent there. The latter were busy with the library, where there were several failed bombs. They had to be neutralized in the first place, since they interfered with the evacuation of the wounded and the removal of the corpses. Soon, the sappers were informed that explosives were also stored in the car of the teenagers. They were also disposed of, and no one else was hurt. It turned out that the shooters did not take all their ammunition with them. Explosives and cartridges were found in the car.
However, when SWAT was in the building, it became clear that the shooters were already finished. Their bodies were found side by side in a burning room on the top floor. Apparently, Eric Harris left the Molotov cocktail, which crashed and started the fire. This was evidenced by the signal from the smoke detector, which worked a minute after the death of the adolescents. The suicides fired shots in the mouth and temple. Death for them came instantly.
Along with the names of the shooters, the death toll includes 15 people. In memory of the victims, a memorial complex was built in the city. At the time of the shooting at Columbine School, it was the third most fatal incident in the history of the United States. It is about the massacres in educational institutions. However, it was this case in Colorado that became world famous.
The reason for this was the work of the then media. Dozens of reporters from various television channels and newspapers soon found themselves near the school. The tragedy also resonated with the international community. It was the journalists who drew the attention of every American to what happened in an ordinary provincial school. Society demanded the results of the investigation by the responsible authorities.
Since then april day the whole world knew that the Columbine School existed. 1999 remained in mass consciousness associated with this tragedy. The word "Columbine" became winged. Unfortunately, similar cases of shooting in educational institutions in the United States, including schools and universities, continue to recur.
In 2007, a similar tragedy occurred at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, when 33 people died. A few more years later, shooting rang out in primary school Sandy Hook. 28 people died in it.
Investigation results
When the names of the shooters became known to the police, investigators urgently went to their homes. They feared that important evidence would be destroyed. That did not happen. The investigation continued until January 2000, when the details of the incident were communicated to the public. Until that moment, various conspiracy theories of what had happened were popular in the United States. For example, teenagers were seen as religious fanatics who organized the Columbine High School massacre. 1999 was generally full of scandals related to various totalitarian sects.
Public outrage
After the details of the life of the two shooters from Colorado became clear, several media scandals took place. Investigators found Harris' diaries detailing his impressions of the Doom computer game. In this shooter, you need to shoot at numerous monsters. Many Americans have accused the game of promoting violence. In addition, the public criticized several groups that the teenagers listened to. Rammstein musicians from Germany were especially persecuted. They were known for their provocative stage surroundings.
In addition, the lyrics of their songs often touched on the theme of violence, hatred and intolerance. The members of the group denied all charges and condemned the shooters. A similar campaign was fought against Marilyn Manson. This American performer was noted for having prepared a special publication in the press, in which he discussed the causes of the tragedy. In addition, the musician wrote two songs dedicated to what happened at Columbine High School.
The discussion about the sale of firearms has become acute. In the wake of the tragedy, several states have introduced laws to prohibit or restrict such trade. American legislation has a number of features. General federal regulations do not apply in such matters. Each subject of the state decides in its own way whether to allow or prohibit the sale of weapons. The same rules apply to the regulation of the death penalty, etc.
Another emergency incident involving students took place in a Russian school. Two 16-year-olds - one active, and the second a former student of this school - attacked educational institution No. 127 in the Motovilikhinsky district of Perm with knives, injuring a teacher and schoolchildren. According to one of the versions, during the attack, a conflict arose between the attackers, they rushed at each other, and the teacher tried to separate them. The second version says that the target of the teenagers was precisely the fourth grade students, and the teacher suffered while protecting the children. The teenagers allegedly wounded each other, trying to kill according to a previously agreed scenario. According to the third version, the former student came to "take revenge" on the former teacher, and the fourth-graders suffered accidentally.
In total, at least 15 people were injured as a result of the attack, 12 of them were hospitalized. Three people, including the teacher, were seriously injured and operated on.
Judging by the pages on the VKontakte social network of both attackers, they were keenly interested in the massacre at the Columbine School in the United States: the pages contain many videos and images on this topic, one of the attackers was also in groups dedicated to this tragedy. In April 1999, in Colorado, using small arms and improvised explosive devices, two students - and - injured 37 people, 13 of whom later died. The attackers committed suicide. One of the attackers on the Perm school on the day of the incident, according to eyewitnesses, also repeatedly stated that he “came here to die”. In addition, according to the information, one of the attackers was registered in a neuropsychiatric dispensary. According to one of the students of school # 127, the guy was distinguished by his aggressive behavior. The student says that the teenager left home several times, took drugs and allegedly tried to commit suicide. Problems with parents, according to a friend, the attacker arose on the basis of hobbies computer games on the verge of addiction.
Note that this is not the first attempt to reproduce "Columbine" in the Russian open spaces. In September 2017, a schoolboy attacked a teacher and schoolchildren in Ivanteevka near Moscow with a pneumatic weapon and a kitchen hatchet. The teacher received a head injury. The frightened children began to jump out of the windows, as a result, three of them received various injuries. As it turned out, the teenager on his page in the social network "VKontakte" recalled the events at the Columbine school on the anniversary of the tragedy. In addition, he prepared for the attack in Ivanteevka in advance and discussed it with friends.
In February 2014, in the Moscow district of Otradnoye, a 10th grade student came to school with his father's small-bore rifle, which he stole from a home safe, and entered a biology class.
There, in front of his classmates, he shot a 30-year-old teacher of geography and biology and took hostages. Later, two police officers arrived at the school on call. One of them, 38-year-old Sergei Bushuev, opened the door of his office, and the teenager shot him. The bullet went through the left arm into the body, from which Bushuev died on the spot. The second policeman, 29-year-old Vladimir Krokhin, tried to rescue a colleague from under fire, but was wounded in the left side of the chest. In a serious condition, Krokhin was taken to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, where he was operated on. Only his father could persuade the teenager to surrender and release the hostages. According to the Investigative Committee, the student managed to fire a rifle at least 11 times before the police seized him. The court sentenced the shooter to compulsory treatment.
Experts urge to refrain from unambiguous conclusions and wait for the completion of the investigation, which would reveal the true motives of the incident in the Perm school. but general trends they are celebrating now. In particular, many of the attackers on schools over the past few years have been found to have family problems. And if parents by themselves cannot pay enough attention to the emotional state of the child, then the school should take control of this process, including teaching mothers and fathers how to listen and communicate with a minor, the head of the clinical department explained to Gazeta.Ru. psychiatry of children and adolescents of the Serbsky Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Anna Portnova, chief freelance child psychiatrist in Moscow.
“The education system, as a very large, well-developed institution, should have a psychological service in its staff. But not every school has psychologists. And where they are, they are mainly involved in accompanying the educational process: they control how children learn skills, knowledge and abilities. They do not deal with the emotional state of children, do not have training in the basics of clinical psychology and psychiatry.
Therefore, most school psychologists do not know how to cope with critical conditions, ”
- notes Portnova.
Irina Umnyashova, head of the Moscow branch of the Federation of Educational Psychologists of Russia, Associate Professor of the Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University, emphasizes that the work of a school psychologist today is poorly regulated by law, which affects its quality. “There is a professional standard of a psychologist - it also includes such a work function as emotional support of children. However, this cannot be done without parental consent. The psychologist is not the first hero of this story. There are class teachers and parents who, realizing that there are signs of deviant behavior, could take part in prevention. ”
The psychologist believes that teens' drive to bring violent stories like Columbine to life suggests that teens want to stand out and impress others. “In adolescence, children tend to imitate and use negative examples to attract attention,” Umnyashova told Gazeta.Ru. Portnova adds that “adolescence itself implies a certain amount of maximalism, a search for vivid sensations, oneself in this world, and also recognition. However, gaining recognition for good deeds is more difficult than bad deeds. Studying excellently is more difficult than bullying, fighting, threatening with a knife or falling into a vibrant subculture and dyeing your hair. "
Psychologist Pavel Volzhenkov rejects the version that Russian teenagers have adopted a certain "fashion" for school attacks. “I believe that children feel the pointlessness of their time in school. They look at how many working poor people around, hear the conversations of adults on these topics, see programs in the media, and want to get out of poverty. They want to earn a lot in order to be well off. What they are given at school has nothing to do with making money. They do not receive answers to their questions about ways of earning money, about professions, about business, and, nevertheless, they are forced to go to school. Because of this, children are protesting.
A teenager can find a way out for these protest feelings in the consumption of alcohol, drugs, in promiscuous sexual relations, in general dangerous behavior, and maybe in such a form of protest as harm to teachers and other children. This is one of the variants of protest, it is not an end in itself.
At the same time, children know about the Columbine school from social networks and the Internet, but it’s not all about this, ”Volzhenkov told Gazeta.Ru.
He thinks that school curriculum needs to be made closer to modern life, to the needs of students, to interests, to how to make money. “Let's say there is algebra at school. This is a wonderful and much needed item. You can explain it to the students day after day by examples of the fact that the boat is sailing at such and such a speed, that so much water has flowed into the pool, and how much has flowed out. But they do not understand why this is necessary. And you can say - this is a bridge, in order to build it, it is necessary to apply such and such an algebraic formula. The bridge is designed by a design engineer. He makes so much money. Now, let's take a look at the site with salaries, vacancies. Now let's see a video on YouTube, in which a design engineer tells how he solves one of the problems from his practice. It will be associated with practical life. In addition, school education is bureaucratic, teachers write a lot of reports, do not keep up with the realities of our time, for what is in demand now, ”the psychologist noted.
