Columbine: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

It is 11:18, and the school is “intact.” Their devices, the boys know, “should have blown by now.” As students continue to leave the building, heading out for their lunch breaks, the boys decide to go to Plan B—though “there [is] no Plan B,” so “staggering” was Eric’s self-assuredness while planning the attack. Eric, Cullen says, “left no indication that he planned for contingencies, [while] Dylan left no indication that he planned much of anything.”

Though no eyewitnesses observe the boys actually making the decision to proceed with “Act Two,” at 11:19 they are observed climbing the outside stairs toward the building’s west exit. There, they ready their weapons and began firing. Eric “sho[ots] at anyone he [can] see. Dylan cheer[s] him on [but] rarely fire[s].” They begin tossing pipe bombs down the stairs and into the grass nearby, and are observed and recorded by security cameras laughing “heart[ily.]”

The first two students down are Rachel Scott and Richard Castaldo—Rachel dies instantly, but Richard, alive and frightened, plays dead. Danny Rohrbough and his friends assume the shots are part of either a paintball game or a senior prank, and “rush to get closer to the action.” Danny is gunned down, and his body lies face-down on the sidewalk. His friend Lance Kirklin is also injured, along with another friend, Sean Graves. Lance begs for help; one of the boys approaches him, says, “Sure, I’ll help,” and shoots him in the face. He blacks out.

A student from inside the cafeteria runs out to grab Sean and pull him to safety. A janitor advises Sean to play dead, and he does.  Dylan steps over Sean’s body and enters the cafeteria, where a “stampede [is] under way.” Coach Dave Sanders runs into the cafeteria and attempts to shepherd students out of the commons. He leads the way up the staircase to the second floor. Nearby, in a science classroom, students taking a chemistry test hear what they think are “rocks being thrown against the windows.” Their teacher tells them to stay seated and concentrate.

Dylan enters the cafeteria just as it empties out. He “watche[s] students [flee] up the stairs,” but does not fire his weapon.

Eric, still outside at the top of the stairs, shoots at a student named Anne Marie Hochhalter—she keeps running, and is shot again. Another student helps her out of Eric’s line of sight, then abandons her. She narrowly misses being caught by a nearby pipe bomb. Dylan rejoins Eric on the stairs, and the two of them realize that they no longer have any “easy targets”—most of their classmates have fled or hidden. It has been four minutes since the two of them began shooting.

Officers are alerted to reports of gunshots at Columbine. The dispatch reaches police at 11:23, and a local deputy pulls onto the scene.

Four minutes into the attack, many of the students at Columbine are still “oblivious.” While students hear commotion outside and in the halls, they continue to sit quietly in class. Teacher Patti Nielson, hearing the ruckus, looks down a hallway and sees one of the shooters with a gun. Assuming it is a prop, she approaches him to reprimand him for being “inappropriate”—it is Eric, and he fires directly at her, shattering a glass door between the two of them. Nielson runs, and a second shot fills her shoulder with shrapnel. “Desperate for a phone,” Nielson runs to the library, orders the students in there down on the ground, and calls 911.

Outside, Eric fires at Deputy Gardner—the first officer on the scene. Dylan flees inside. Gardner fires back, and believes he makes a hit—but Eric reloads his gun and returns fire, then runs inside. Both shooters head for the library.

Dave Sanders, having heard the gunfire aimed at Patti Nielson, runs toward it. He sees the shooters at the end of the hall and turns the corner, telling as many students as he can to find cover.