College Killers: School Shootings in North America and Europe - Columbine, Jonesboro, Bath, Thurston, Red Lake, Virginia, Pontiac’s Rebellion, Texas Tower, Beslan, Erfurt, Dunblane

by Gordon Kerr

  The two boys were both pupils of Westfield Middle School and had become friends on their twice daily bus ride to and from school. They often bullied the other children on the bus and boasted about their activities. Once, Johnson was heard to say, ‘I have a lot of killing to do.’

  Gunshots from the Forest

  On 24 March, the students and teachers of Westfield Middle School had just started fifth period at 12:35 p.m. when the fire alarm started ringing. Students and teachers began immediately to evacuate the building, following a well-rehearsed procedure. The alarm, however, had been triggered by Andrew Golden who, immediately afterwards joined Mitchell Johnson in woods next to the school. From there, the two boys had a perfect view of the exit doors that would be used in the fire drill. At 12:41 p.m., as the unsuspecting students and teachers flooded through the doors, gunshots rang out.

  That morning Johnson had told his parents that he had stomach pains and they let him stay home from school. As soon as they had left the house to go to work, he got into his mother’s Dodge van and drove to Andrew Golden’s grandfather’s house. The van was already loaded with survival gear, a tent, a portable radio and food supplies. They planned to hide out in the wilderness after the shootings until things had quietened down.

  Golden had planned to steal weapons from his own house but he had been unable to break into the gun safe. Nonetheless, he still managed to pick up a couple of pistols that had been left lying around. He thought they would have better luck at his grandfather’s house because he knew where his grandfather kept the key to his guns. He broke in through the basement and re-emerged with an armful of weapons. Altogether, their arsenal of weapons consisted of ten guns and a couple of hunting knives.

  A Vast Arsenal

  While Golden set off the fire alarm, Johnson had unloaded the guns from the van and carried them into the woods. When Golden returned, he pulled on a camouflage vest heavy with ammunition. He had 19 .44-caliber shells and 34 .357 shells in the middle front pockets, seven more .357 shells in an upper right pocket, a lower left pocket filled with 49 .380 shells, 16 .30 special shells, 26 .357 magnums shells, six .30-caliber shells, and three .30-caliber 30-shot clips in a back pocket. He had beside him a .30-caliber carbine rifle and three pistols. Johnson, meanwhile, had a Remington .30-06 deer-hunting rifle fitted with a powerful telescopic sight with which it would be hard to miss any target. He also had four pistols, two knives and a similarly huge amount of ammunition in his pockets, including a couple of speed loaders for a .38 revolver.

  The teachers and pupils were following the fire drill procedure, lining up in single file in their class groupings. As they did so they began to hear odd sounds, like popping noises. Some thought they sounded like firecrackers or may have come from a nearby construction site but soon it became evident that these were more than just firecrackers.

  Fifteen Second Slaughter

  In 15 seconds, Johnson and Golden fired 26 shots. Eleven-year-old Brittany Varner was killed instantly; 32-year-old English teacher and mother of a young child, Shannon Wright, was killed by a bullet in the chest as she tried to protect the little girl standing next to her. On the ground, as she lay dying, she begged those tending to her wound to tell her husband and son that she loved them very much. Three other girls died – Paige Ann Herring and Stephanie Johnson, both aged 12, and 11-year-old Natalie Brooks. A teacher and nine other pupils fell to the ground wounded, amongst them Mitchell Johnson’s former girlfriend, Candace Porter, who was shot in the ribs.

  The emergency services converged on the school, as did parents, anxious to ensure that their children were unharmed. Golden and Johnson, meanwhile, panicked and fled into the woods with police officers in pursuit. They were caught shortly after.

  The two boys were amongst the youngest people ever to be charged with murder in American criminal history. Their youth did save them from the death penalty, however, and instead they received the maximum sentence available in Arkansas in the circumstances – confinement until the age of 18. Additional weapons charges meant that they actually remained incarcerated until the age of 21.

  Mitchell Johnson was released on August 11, 2005 and Andrew Golden on May 25, 2007.

  Thurston High School Massacre

  Year: 1998

  Perpetrator: Kipland P. Kinkel

  Murdered: 4

  May 20, 1998 was a disastrous day for 15-year-old Kipland P. Kinkel. A freshman at Thurston High School, Springfield in the Williamette Valley, Oregon, he had been caught in possession of a Beretta .32 handgun at school. He had bought the gun for £70 ($110) from another student, Korey Ewart who had stolen it from a friend’s father. Kinkel wrapped it in a paper bag and hid it in his school locker. Soon, however, the gun’s owner reported it missing and amongst the names he provided of those who had been in a position to steal it was Ewart. A short while later, it emerged that Ewart had sold the weapon to Kinkel.

  Kinkel was summoned to the head’s office where he confessed to police to having the gun, telling them it was in the locker. He was held in police custody until his furious father, William, arrived to take him home. On the way they stopped at a burger restaurant and over dinner his father lectured him on his behaviour and how he had let him and his mother down. Kinkel’s already fragile temperament was in tatters by the time they arrived home.

  ‘A Bad Kid with Bad Habits’

  He had always felt as if he was a disappointment to his parents. His older sister, Kristin, was a successful student and a brilliant athlete. She seemed to be everything that Faith and William Kinkel wanted in a child, while Kip was a constant source of disappointment to them. His father had described him as ‘a bad kid with bad habits’. Now, he was in more serious trouble than ever before and was almost certainly going to be expelled from school.

  Kip Kinkel had always expressed an interest in guns and his father, having enrolled him in gun safety classes, had bought him a 9mm Glock 19 to practise with. But unknown to his parents, Kip had purchased a sawn-off Ruger 10.22 semi-automatic rifle from a neighbour. It was this gun that Kinkel fetched from his bedroom when he got home. He walked into the kitchen where William Kinkel was standing with his back to him having a drink, raised the gun, aimed and, from a distance of about 10ft (3m), shot his father in the head. He then dragged his body into the bathroom where he threw a sheet over it.

  After that, he spent time on the phone to friends, talking about what had happened in school, acting as if nothing else had happened. At about 6 p.m., his mother’s car drove into the basement garage of the house. He heard her footsteps on the stairs and when she walked into the house, he said, ‘I love you,’ and then pumped six bullets into her. He dragged her body back downstairs, leaving her in the garage, again covered with a sheet. At this point, he later claimed, he intended to kill himself and, indeed, raised the Glock several times to his temple to do so, but could not go through with it.

  The remainder of that night, he listened to music, mainly the piece Liebestod from the movie Romeo and Juliet. He played it continuously and, in fact, when police arrived at the house the following day, it was still playing.

  Kip Kinkel was no stranger to trouble. On 4 January 1997, he had been arrested in Bend, Oregon for throwing rocks from a bridge onto traffic passing below. He was kept in custody for one night and, after appearing to show remorse, was ordered to perform 32 hours of community service. Faith Kinkel had taken him to see a psychiatrist who noted the boy’s predilection for making bombs using petrol and other household materials that he set off in nearby quarries to vent anger. The psychiatrist merely warned him that it was dangerous to play with petrol. He seems to have paid little heed, however, because after the shootings, in the crawl-space beneath the Kinkel house, police discovered five home-made bombs, two of which had electronic timing devices, and at least another 15 explosive devices, including a hand grenade. It was this discovery that led to the bodies of William and Faith Kinkel remaining in the house for almost 30 hours until the site was declared safe
.

  There were other signs too of the teenager’s troubled nature and of his poor relationship with his parents, especially his father. He had smashed a tractor’s windows with an axe, he had karate-kicked a fellow student in the head and he was known to behead cats and display their severed heads on sticks.

  Armed to the Teeth

  The following morning there was a relaxed atmosphere at Thurston High School, the next day, Friday and the following Monday were holidays and everyone was winding down towards the long weekend. The school cafeteria thronged with students chatting and laughing. It was especially busy that day because in the school library an early morning breakfast was being held to honour the contributions made to the school by some senior boys.

  Meanwhile, Kip Kinkel was driving the 20 minutes to school, armed to the teeth. Under his coat were the Ruger rifle, a Ruger .22 pistol and the Glock his father had bought for him. He was also carrying a couple of knives and 1,200 rounds of ammunition.

  Arriving at school, he immediately made his way to the foyer where he shot and wounded two students. He then strolled into the crowded cafeteria, calmly firing at random as he walked.

  For a moment, there was a feeling of unreality in the cafe. Initially, some students thought it must be some kind of prank while others who could not see Kinkel believed the sounds to be coming from firecrackers. Suddenly, the reality and the horror of the situation struck home. Screams began to ring out as people threw themselves to the ground, hid under tables or ran frantically for the exits. The horror multiplied when students saw Kinkel walk up to a boy lying wounded on the floor and pump four bullets into his prone body. As one student later described it, the most frightening thing was the lack of expression on his face, ‘like it was something he did every day’.

  A couple of male students – 6ft 4in (1.95m) Jake Ryker, who had already taken a bullet in the chest, and Adam Walburger – courageously decided to try to stop him. Ryker launched himself at Kinkel, knocking him to the ground, but not before he had been shot again. Ryker’s younger brother, Josh, and another wounded student, Tony Case, joined Walburger in restraining the teenage gunman and held him until police officers eventually arrived on the scene. Thankfully, all these boys survived the incident, including Jake Ryker who had a perforated lung. He was later honoured with their highest award for bravery and leadership by the Boy Scouts of America of which he was a member.

  At the police station, Kinkel attacked a police officer with a knife he had concealed, hoping, he later claimed, that he would be shot dead.

  In September 1999, Kip Kinkel pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to 111 years in prison with no possibility of parole. He apologized for his actions.

  Signs of Schizophrenia

  It has been claimed since Kinkel was sentenced that he was mentally ill when he carried out the shootings. One clinical psychologist has said that Kinkel exhibited all the classic signs of paranoid schizophrenia but had made huge efforts to conceal it for fear he would be considered abnormal. He is said to have suffered from hearing voices and from delusions, and had a terror of being declared mentally ill. It has been claimed that he should have taken the case to trial and argued an insanity defense.

  A note was found in his room after the killings. It read: ‘I have just killed my parents! I don’t know what is happening. I love my mom and dad so much. I just got two felonies on my record. My parents can’t take that! It would destroy them. The embarrassment would be too much for them. They couldn’t live with themselves. I’m so sorry. I am a horrible son. I wish I had been aborted. I destroy everything I touch. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I didn’t deserve them. They were wonderful people. It’s not their fault or the fault of any person, organization, or television show. My head just doesn’t work right. God damn these VOICES inside my head. I want to die. I want to be gone. But I have to kill people. I don’t know why. I am so sorry! Why did God do this to me. I have never been happy. I wish I was happy. I wish I made my mother proud. I am nothing! I tried so hard to find happiness. But you know me I hate everything. I have no other choice. What have I become? I am so sorry’.

  Columbine High School Massacre

  Year: 1999

  Perpetrators: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

  Murdered: 13

  It took just 49 minutes.

  During that time, 13 people lost their lives, 23 were wounded and terror stalked the corridors of Columbine High School, in Jefferson County, Colorado.

  The perpetrators were two deeply disturbed teenagers – 18-year-old Eric David Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Bennet Klebold – who for more than a year had dreamt of creating an outrage on the level of the one carried out by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City in 1995 in which 169 people had died. Their attack would be revenge for years of what they saw as snubs, insults and cruelties. Ultimately, it was not as devastating as they had hoped, but it would change American schools forever.

  A Hatred Within

  The signs were there, if anyone had troubled to look closely. In an angry blog Harris voiced his loathing for the society in which he lived, venting his spleen at parents, teachers and fellow students. The website that hosted the blog also provided instructions on bomb-making, and when Harris wrote death threats aimed at a fellow student, Brooks Brown, the authorities were alerted and his home was searched for explosives. Harris was ordered to see a psychiatrist and was put on a course of anti-depressants that brought with them unsettling side effects including increased aggression and depersonalization.

  In the years following the massacre, there have been differing versions of the two boys’ lives. Some have described them as computer ‘nerds’ who spent an inordinate amount of time playing violent games such as Doom, while others have characterized them as sociable, with a wide circle of friends.

  They chose Tuesday 20 April 1999 for several reasons. Firstly, it was the birthday of Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, but they also planned to commemorate McVeigh’s attack, which had taken place on 19 April as well as the infamous 51-day siege at Waco in Texas that ended on 19 April 1993 with the deaths of 82 Branch Davidians, led by David Koresh.

  ‘Today is Not a Good Day to be Here’

  That morning, Harris and Klebold made a video, apologizing in advance for the actions that were to follow. They then set off separately for the school they attended, Columbine High. Their cars were loaded with an arsenal of weapons and explosives including a semi-automatic 9mm handgun, a 9mm carbine rifle, a sawn-off 12-gauge shotgun, and a sawn-off 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. They also had two duffel bags, each containing one 20lb propane bomb set to explode at 11:17 a.m. These were to be used to blow up the school cafeteria where 500 students would be relaxing between lessons. That morning, those students had ignored the ominous message which had run across the bottom of the scrolling school message board that was broadcast on television screens in various parts of the building. It had read, ‘Today is not a good day to be here’.

  Harris and Klebold arrived at the school at 11:10 a.m., parking close to the cafeteria. Coincidentally, they bumped into Brooks Brown, the boy that Harris had threatened, but because he now liked him, Harris told him it would be best if he went home. Something in Harris’s eyes and tone persuaded Brown that he should do as he was told. He left the school.

  The killers entered the cafeteria and left their bags containing the bombs beside a table. They then went outside and waited for them to go off. Meanwhile, bombs in their cars were also timed to go off around that time. Nothing happened. The bombs failed to detonate.

  In a field three miles from the school, however, one of their devices did explode and 911 calls were reporting it. Harris and Klebold had set this up as a diversionary tactic to draw emergency services away from where the real action was going to take place.

  The two teenagers, dressed in trench coats and carrying backpacks and duffel bags, were now located at the top of the school’s west exterior steps. A cry of ‘Go!’ was heard and they pulled the
ir shotguns from the bags.

  The Carnage Begins

  The first to die, at around 11:23 a.m., was 17-year-old Rachel Scott, killed by shots to the head, torso and leg on a nearby grassy area where she had been eating lunch with 17-year-old Richard Castaldo who was wounded but not killed. At that moment, two 15-year-olds, Daniel Rohrburgh and Sean Graves, and 16-year-old Lance Kirklin, walked through a cafe door at the foot of the staircase. Rohrburgh was immediately felled by a shot to the chest while the other two fell to the ground wounded. As students scattered and took cover, another five were wounded. In the midst of this mayhem, Dylan Klebold ran down the staircase and shot Lance Kirklin in the face. Kirklin was critically wounded, but would survive. Klebold next moved to the wounded Daniel Rohrburgh, and callously shot him dead at point blank range. He then returned to the top of the stairs and was heard to say, ‘This is what we always wanted to do! This is awesome!’ The two continued shooting and tossing home-made bombs onto the roof and into the car park.

  The first emergency call from the school occurred at 11:23 a.m. when a student reported an injured girl in the south car park. Police officers, en route to the field where the bomb had exploded, diverted to the school, lights flashing and sirens screaming. Their arrival momentarily distracted Harris and Klebold, allowing teacher Patti Nielson and student Brian Anderson, coming through the west entrance doors, to escape with only injuries from shattered glass.