The long-awaited final report by the Jefferson County, Colo., Sheriff's Department was released today, more than a year after the nation's worst school shooting.
Investigators have billed the report as the most detailed account of what happened on April 20, 1999, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold charged their school with guns, eventually wounding 23 people and leaving 15 dead, including themselves.
The report, issued on CD-ROM, provides a minute-by-minute timeline of that tragic day, beginning when the gunmen fired their first shots at about 11:19 a.m. By 11:35 a.m., according to the report, the gunmen had wounded their last victims. By shortly after noon, they had committed suicide.
The report also details numerous 911 calls and how law enforcement officials in Littleton, Colo., planned their response to the attack. By day's end, nearly 1,000 law enforcement, fire and medical services personnel had taken part.
The failure of the cafeteria bombs and the arrival of officers to the scene apparently caused the gunmen to change their plans during the attack, since they had never listed the school library as a destination point, the report says.
As it turned out, the library was the scene of the worst carnage. In the 7-½ minutes they were in the library, Klebold and Harris shot and killed 10 people and wounded 12 more. They carried more than enough ammunition to kill all 56 people in the library.
In the writings they left behind, Klebold and Harris listed 67 people they disliked for various reasons. But only one of those named was actually wounded in the attack and investigators say there is no evidence that student was specifically targeted on the day of the massacre.
Families Awaited Report's Release The report encompasses not only the shooting rampage itself, but the harrowing hours that followed as police combed the school building for victims, the gunmen, and bombs planted by the perpetrators.
Although much has been written and said about the massacre in Littleton during the last 13 months, the sheriff's report has been highly anticipated. Victims and their families have filed some 15 lawsuits against Sheriff John Stone and his department alleging, among other things, that authorities ignored warning signs that could have flagged them to the gunmen's plans and that SWAT teams took too long responding to the scene.
Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson had given the sheriff's department until today to release its final report on the shootings, which is based on almost 4,500 interviews and 10,000 pieces of evidence gathered after the massacre.
The families of the victims have also complained that the sheriff's department has attempted to stall their lawsuits by denying them access to the findings of the months-long investigation.
Among other details in the report, the exact movements of the gunmen, the length of their rampage and the precise time SWAT teams entered the library are crucial to the families' claims against the sheriff's department.
Was the Tragedy Preventable? According to the report, the first 911 call came in from a Columbine High student at 11:23 a.m. reporting a girl injured in the south lower parking lot of the high school. Around 12:06 p.m., two minutes before the gunmen are believed to have killed themselves in the library, the first SWAT teams arrived at the school.
Jefferson County officials deny police were negligent in their handling of the school shooting or any events that preceded it. The sheriff's department argues it had to remain cautious during the massacre since reports conflicted about how many gunmen were inside the school, what kind of weapons they had and where they were hiding. Charging in would have risked more deaths, they have said.
Although today's report establishes a detailed record of the massacre, the most fundamental question about the tragedy was not answered, according an open letter released by the sheriff's department: "Why? That is, why would two young men, in the spring of their lives, choose to murder faculty members and classmates? The evidence provides no definitive explanation, and the question continues to haunt us all."