Columbine report released

Investigators could not pinpoint exactly when Harris and Klebold began conspiring to commit the massacre, but the earliest evidence of mutual understanding occurred a year before the attack.

In April 1998, Klebold made four entries in Harris' yearbook. One referred to "the holy April morning of NBK [Natural Born Killers]." Another includes the lines "killing enemies, blowing up stuff, killing cops!! My wrath for January's incident will be godlike. Not to mention our revenge in the commons." The reports says investigators believe the January incident referred to their arrest for breaking into a vehicle on Jan. 30, 1998. The main bombs were set to go off in the commons. The report says that those bombs could have killed all 488 people in the cafeteria. It also concludes that the casualties were a fraction of the number intended chiefly because Harris and Klebold were poor bomb makers.

Harris made similar entries in Klebold's 1998 yearbook: "God I can't wait till they die. I can taste the blood now - NBK" [Natural Born Killer] ... You know what I hate? ... MANKIND!!!! ... kill everything ... kill everything." He also drew a gunman standing amid a sea of dead bodies with a caption: "The only reason your [sic] still alive is because someone has decided to let you live."

Investigators also retrieved eight pages Klebold apparently wrote and drew just a day before the attack, discovered in his notebook along with his math homework. "About 26.5 hours from now the judgment will begin," one passage began. "Difficult but not impossible, necessary, nervewracking and fun. What fun is life without a little death? It's interesting, when i'm in my human form, knowing i'm going to die. Everything has a touch of triviality to it."

The report also seems to downplay the significance of the Trench Coat Mafia, another focal point of many of the stories just after the shooting. It states: "Although the investigation identified Harris and Klebold as being 'members' of the TCM, it appears that the Trench Coat Mafia was a loose, social affiliation of former and current Columbine High School students with no formal organizational structure, leadership or purpose such as that typically found in traditional juvenile street gangs. Contrary to reports following the Columbine shootings, there is no evidence of affiliated Trench Coat Mafia groups nationwide."

Previously, investigators had minimized the pair's role in the group, characterizing them as "fringe members." In an exclusive interview with Salon in September, Battan repeatedly scoffed at the notion of any significant association: "They were outcasts in that!" she said.

Some families were left unsatisfied and angry after the report's release, accusing the sheriff's office of continuing to withhold crucial information. Brian Rohrbough, whose son Dan was killed in the attack, characterized the report as full of lies and contradictions in an interview on the local CBS affiliate. "They want to show it to be much more confusing than it was," he said. "And they want to build in a lot of excuses."

"Certainly they're not going to tell the truth," said Judy Brown at an impromptu press conference when the report was distributed. "People are going to be so outraged when they hear the truth." The Browns alerted officials to Harris' death threats and Web site months before the attack, and play a key role in several of the families' lawsuits. They have begun the process for a recall of Sheriff John Stone. Brown's son escaped unharmed from the school the day of the assault.

"If you're preparing for a lawsuit, one of the most major lawsuits in the United States, and you have all the information, do you think you're going to give everything out?" Brown's husband, Randy, added. "I think you're going to release the best version of this that's going to do best for your lawsuit."

The report reiterated several statements repeated frequently by investigators: It ruled out a third gunman or conspirator, said Harris and Klebold hoped to kill hundreds and concluded that a failed bomb outside the school was intended to divert police longer. "The failure of the cafeteria bombs to detonate and the arrival of responding officers apparently caused the gunmen to reevaluate their planned attack, since they had never listed the school library as a destination point," it said.

It explained the third-gunman confusion as coming both from Harris' removing his trench coat quickly and the sighting of a "shooter" on the roof who turned out to be an air-conditioning repairman.

Sheriff's officials refused to comment on the report, citing the pending litigation brought by several families. Copies of the report will be available to the public, beginning Tuesday, for $12 plus tax and shipping. They can be ordered by phone at (720) 317-1131, fax at (720) 449-7553 or e-mail at Columbine@wcox.com.

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