Through The Eyes of the Victimes
These are true accounts of what happened on Tuesday April 20th at Columbine High School. (Taken from August 1999 issue of Teen People)
Jon Cohen, 17, was in choir when the shooting started.
"I was having a really bad day. The night before, my brother's girlfriend hit her head in our basement and had to get stitches. I remember thinking that I could never be a doctor because I couldn't handle the sight of blood - pretty ironic, now that I think of it.
Nick Foss, 19, was in the cafeteria for Lunch
"I was thinking all day, 'Hey, this weekend I'm going to get my car rebuilt. I got all my tests done. English is done' I was having a pretty fly day for a while. Then all of a sudden, this woman came in screaming, 'Someone got shot!' My first thought was okey, some punk wannabe got shot in the arm or whatever. I ran into the hall. I wanted to see. It was curiosity, but it turned out to be stupidity."
Steve Cohen, 18, and his Sister Diana, 16 were also in the cafeteria when a teacher (Dave Sanders, who was shot and killed) burst in yelling for people to get down.
"The first thing that came into my mind was the school shootings in Kentucky and Mississippi, so I thought, 'Oh, my God, we have to get out of here!' We all ran up the main stairwell, and Diana fell and got kind of trampled. It was chaos. Hundreds of people. I looked behind me, and she was gone. I was just standing there looking around for Diana. And my friend was yelling at me 'You've got to go! You've got to go!' I didn't know what I was thinking then, I was just in a state of shock."
Nick Foss, ran into the hallway and found a war zone.
"there were people all over, running and getting shot. Shrapnel and explosions and bullets everywhere. You ever see Saving Private Ryan? The first ten minutes of that? That's what it was like. I'm on the ground, looking right up at the two gunmen, where they were shooting. They went around the corner for a minute and then came back. So all the people got off the ground and ran. I tried to keep my head through the whole thing. it was just shock and adrenaline. I saw these two kids lying in the hall. So I ran back for them, about sixty feet away from the gunmen. I checked this one kid, and I knew he was dead. It turned out to be DAn Rohrbough. I looked at the other kid, and he was moaning in pain and there was blood all over the place. He looked at me, and half his face was blown off. He just looked at me, like, I don't know.. What do you say at that moment when someone's going to die? < that student, Lance Kirklin, survived. He's out of the hospital, but doctors say he'll need several more operations to repair his shattered face. > Then while I was sitting there, the gunman came around the corner again and pointed the barrel toward me. And I thought it was over. I thought I was dead. I just remember saying, 'I love you all,' out loud to everyone in my family, my friends, everyone. And the gun went off. I got grazed by a bullet on the side of my head. From sixty feet away with a sawed off shotgun. I was suprised to be alive. The shot kind of knocked me off my knees and rolled me. And then I ran like a little Mario or something. And some woman starts yellig, 'Get the heck into the teachers lounge!"
Sara Houy, 16, was in the library on the second floor with her borther Seth and friend Crystal Woodman, 17, when the shooters headed upstairs.
"I vaguely heard some guns or something, but I just thought it was a paint-ball gun. Then this teacher came in, and I thought she was just going to tell us to be quiet. She said, 'There's a guy with a gun out there. Everybody, get down!' We just thought it was a senior prank. Crystal and I were crouching, 'cause we didn't know whether to get under the table or not. Then she yelled again 'You guys, GET DOWN!'"
Steve Cohen, still in the hallway outside the library, was jolted from a state of shock by the sounds of gunfire.
"The bullets were popping of the lockers. You see tons and tons of little flashes of light, and you think, 'Oh, my gosh, the next one is going to hit me.' I just had to get out of there. I turned around and scanned the people in front of me, hoping to see Diana. I remember she was wearing a pink shirt that day, and I was looking for anything pink. Then I ran, just hoping she got in front of me."
Jon Cohen, in the choir room, no more then 50 feet from whre his brother had just been.
"We looked up, and we could see out the door of the choir room. I saw people running, and we heard shots. Immediately, the guy sitting next to me, my choir partner, Adam Foss, he got up out of his chair and ran to the door to hear the shots. At that point, it was chaos - some people hit the deck, I guess. But I followed the group in front of me that got up and ran for the door into the hallway. I was just thinking:Get out! I could hear so many shots. For all I knew there could have been 20 people shooting.. I remember thinking, 'God, I hop I don't die.'"
Adam Foss, 19(Nick's twin brother) stayed behind and helped students hide in the room office.
"I saw kids still in their seats who didn't even know where they were. I grabbed one girl - she didn't want to move. I just threw her in the office. We closed the door, and me and two buddies put the desk in front of it. We were like, 'They can shoot all they want, but they are not coming in.' kids were praying a lot and crying. But I was singing. I sang a little until someone told me to shut up. I had to do something to break the tension."
Jon Cohengot out of the choir room and ran right inot his sister Diana, just as the gunmen reached the top of the staircase, about 50 feet away.
" I started to turn right, but they were right there. I grabbed Diana, and she was just sobbing. We ran through the auditorium, heading for the main entrance, about two hundred feet down a wide hall. We were almost at the front dorr, I guess about 20 feet away, when all the glass was suddenly shattered right in front of us. We though there were more people in the parking lot shooting in through the front door. But they were really right behind us. So we ducked behind a trophy case wall that was to the left of us, and we just hid there. Bullets were flying by from behind us. So we thought, 'They're coming from behind us and in front of us. We're trapped!'"
To Be Continued Guys, I'm tired and can't finish!
