Columbine High School

Columbine Memorial Website
Site dedicated to the funding and completion of a permanent memorial to both honor and remember the victims of the April 20, 1999 shootings at Columbine High School.

Tragedy Fact Sheet; published May 28, 1999

When: April 20, 1999

What Occurred
Two students armed with semi-automatic handguns, shotguns and explosives conducted an assault on the school and the people inside. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is coordinating the criminal investigation. The Littleton Fire Department was the agency responsible for fire and EMS operations.

Victims
• 12 students, 1 teacher, 2 suspects killed;
• 24 students transported to six local hospitals;
• 160 students were triaged at the scene.

Location
Columbine High School, 6201 South Pierce Street, Littleton, Colorado 80123.
Columbine is located in unincorporated Jefferson County, approximately one mile west of the Littleton city limits. It is served by the Littleton Fire Department through a contract with the Littleton Fire Protection District. Columbine High School is part of the Jefferson County School District, and the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners are the elected officials who represent those who attend the school.

Time
The first calls were received in the Littleton Combined Communications Center at 11:21 a.m.

Emergency Response
Ten fire apparatus, 48 rescue/ambulances and a total of 166 fire and EMS personnel responded to the incident from the Littleton Fire Department and five neighboring fire agencies. Additionally, two helicopters and four ambulance companies provided assistance. The Littleton Police SWAT Team and many other members of the police department were among the first on the scene. They assisted in securing the perimeter and evacuating the wounded. The police department's entire detective division was deployed to the criminal investigation at the request of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. Littleton police and fire dispatchers fielded hundreds of calls related to the incident.

City Response
In the first three days following the incident, city staff and elected officials worked at the incident command center alongside officials from Jefferson County.

City council and staff assisted in planning the April 25 Memorial Service attended by an estimated 80,000 people. Speakers included Vice President Al Gore, Governor Bill Owens, Jefferson County Commissioner Pat Holloway and Littleton Mayor Pat Cronenberger.

The City of Littleton tribute was held May 14 and featured students from the three Littleton Public Schools high schools, a children's choral group, a local pastor and Littleton's mayor. A special edition of the city's bi-monthly publication, The Littleton Report was produced. The edition included a letter from the mayor and three pages of messages of support sent to the city from around the world.

Curators at the Littleton Historical Museum are collecting each piece of correspondence sent to the city, the city council and the residents of Littleton as part of the city's historical archives. Staff at the Littleton Historical Museum, along with the Colorado Historical Society and numerous volunteers, assisted Jefferson County in collecting all of the items left at the make- shift memorial at Clement Park.

On the Littleton Community Network (www.littleton.org) Web site, Bemis Public Library staff set up a chat room so that people could share their thoughts, and posted the city's statements concerning the Columbine tragedy, and messages of support sent to Littleton from around the world. Bemis Library staff held a carnival to raise funds to donate to the Columbine High School Library. $2,200 was raised.

World Response
Approximately 1,000 e-mail messages, 500 letters and cards, hundreds of phone calls, dozens of banners, numerous tapes, gifts and flowers have been sent to the city. Media requests from every major U.S. television news organization, dozens of newspapers and magazines and international media, including Dateline NBC, Nightline, Good Morning America, The Today Show, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the New York Times, the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Company, etc. were responded to by council members and staff.