Columbine: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

It takes twenty-eight minutes for reports of a shooting at Columbine to hit TV. The information coming in is muddled and confusing, but it’s clear that “something awful” has happened—and is still happening. A war is happening abroad, and all network news has been fixed on Kosovo, but by six minutes til noon Denver time, CNN has abandoned its coverage of Central Europe in favor of “lock[ing] in” on Columbine.

Students with cell phones still trapped inside the building make frantic 911 calls with conflicting information, “overwhelm[ing]” 911 operators. When calls to the police can no longer go through, many students call the local TV stations directly, and are interviewed live on television. There is no shortage of “witnesses,” though not all of them have actually seen anything, and those who have are deeply confused. Because Eric and Dylan each removed their trench coats at different points in the attack, students report seeing many shooters, all dressed differently.

As students begin returning from lunch, they find their school barricaded. Nate Dykeman, who had gone home for lunch, returns to campus, sees the mayhem, and begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together—Eric and Dylan missed class that morning, and have recently been bragging about gathering ordnance--building pipe bombs and buying guns. When Nate learns that the shooters are in trench coats, he knows for sure that his two friends are the attackers. Nate heads home, and begins making calls to his friends. He plans to call Dylan’s house “soon.”

As police officers, firefighters, and paramedics rush toward Columbine, students continue to rush from the building and provide desperate, confused reports of the chaos inside. One injured student tells an officer that he was shot by “Ned Harris.” Not one officer goes into the school. This is “protocol [which] call[s] for containment.” Deputies set up a “perimeter,” and paramedics “establish triage areas.” Cullen writes that “half a dozen cops arrive every minute [but] nobody seems to be in charge.” Some want to breach the perimeter and go into the building but others are afraid to reject protocol. The perimeter is reinforced, and no officers will fire on or approach the school for another half hour.