Bombs found in Columbine kitchen

By ROBERT WELLER
Associated Press

LITTLETON — The two outcasts who massacred their classmates before killing themselves intended to blow up the school, authorities said today after discovering two large propane bombs hidden in the school's kitchen.

The discovery also could provide more evidence of a wider conspiracy, Sheriff John Stone said today.

"These subjects were not only on a killing rampage, but they were going to destroy the school. They were going to burn the school up," Stone said after the bombs were discovered and removed from Columbine High School.

Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, armed with sawed-off shotguns, a semiautomatic rifle, pistol and homemade bombs stuffed with nails and shotgun shells, killed 12 students and one teacher Tuesday before killing themselves.

Authorities had already been looking into the possibility of additional suspects because of the amount of ammunition and explosives left behind.

Each of the bombs, placed inside propane tanks like the kind found on backyard barbecues, weighed at least 35 pounds, authorities said.

"It's drawing suspicion out here that they would have time to put as much ordnance in that school as they did without some help," Stone said today after meeting with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

Investigators said a note written by one of the two gunmen was found in one of the teens' homes, but authorities refused to characterize the note or discuss what it said. They also turned their attention to the community, interviewing acquaintances, classmates and relatives of the gunmen.

School officials today said Columbine will be closed indefinitely as damage is assessed. Other schools in the district reopened today, and officials said proms and graduations would go on as planned.

Columbine's prom took place earlier this month, and graduation is scheduled for early May, though officials did not say whether that would go on as scheduled. Students here will finish out the school year at other schools.

The removal of the victims' bodies more than a day after the shootings allowed investigators to begin cataloging evidence and turn their attention to other issues.

"We're tracing the weapons and individual purchases to determine how these young adults obtained these illegal weapons," Rich Marianos of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said today.

Authorities said the bombs were made from materials that could have been bought at most hardware stores.

Before she left for Colorado on Wednesday, Reno said she wanted to talk about how to avert the next school shooting. "We've got to get the guns out of the hands of young people. ... We've got to make sure they have the counseling, the support to help them come to grips with the anger of their life when it occurs," she said.

It was already clear, however, that the string of school shootings in Kentucky, Oregon and elsewhere will be tough to stop.

This week's attack inspired a copycat act by teen-agers on Wednesday, although there were no weapons involved. Four teens were charged with trespassing in Colorado Springs after arriving at a school in trench coats and masks.

"The suspects were mocking yesterday's events," a police statement said.

Other schools in Jefferson County reopened today with tightened security, although a spring snowstorm caused some school closings. Officers and school staff plan "sweeps" and greater security at entrances and exits, Stone said.

Trench coats like the ones worn by the two gunmen were banned in Denver and two other Colorado school districts because they could be used to hide weapons.

In Littleton, Denver and other communities, grieving parents and students gathered for services to remember those killed and to offer mutual support.

Despite a cold rain and wind that set in Wednesday night, hundreds of friends, classmates and relatives filed past the flowers, balloons, poems, prayers and teddy bears that were heaped up on the ground in a park near the school.

Some students huddled in white blankets given out by aid workers. They wept around the car belonging to Rachel Scott, one of the dead students. The car was also heaped with flowers and poems and prayers.

Amid the small bouquets and large wreaths at the park stood a small potted pine with a card addressed to the school's students and staff: "You are all heroes. You are all courageous," it said.

Rachel's brother, Craig, who was in the library when the shooting began, said he prayed.

"I just ended up laying on the floor," he told NBC's "Today." "I was praying to God , to give me courage, and to keep protection over us. He told me to get out of there. God told me to get out of there."

Michael Shoels' son, Isaiah, one of the students who was killed, was black and an athlete, two things that made him a special target of the shooters, witnesses said.

"He had two strikes against him," Shoels said today.

The families of the killers issued brief statements that mixed apology with grief and, just as among the victims' relatives, an inability to comprehend the incomprehensible.

"Like the rest of the country, we are struggling to understand why this happened," Klebold's family said.

Classmates said Harris and Klebold were part of an outcast group called the Trenchcoat Mafia and that they wore black and spoke German to each other. They believe their choice of Adolf Hitler's birthday for the attack was no coincidence.

Accounts from students indicated Harris was a leader, a boy who would come to class as if to war, in steel-toed combat boots and a German cross, while Klebold was a follower.

Jessie Boyer Jr., a former friend of Harris, said he was surprised Harris criticized "jocks" because he had liked sports.

"He was an upbeat guy, but something changed. He associated himself with Nazis, and listened to a techno-Nazi band," Boyer said.

Harris also liked war games with his friends.

"He was into combat more than anyone else I've ever seen," said Andrew Beard, a fellow student.

Investigators interviewed the parents of the suspects and searched their homes. They also were interviewing dozens, if not hundreds, of Columbine's 1,800 students. Some were fellow members of the Trenchcoat Mafia.

The probe was complicated by the massive, heavily damaged crime scene — an entire high school and its grounds — and the need to catalog every shell casing, every piece of shrapnel, every damaged ceiling tile. They also had to photograph the location of every body.

Early today, 14 people remained hospitalized, three in critical condition and five in serious condition.

Some wondered whether they would be asked to return to the halls where their classmates killed and were killed.

"I really don't think anybody wants to go back in there," said Susan Dewitt, 17, glancing toward the barricaded school Wednesday night. Her voice broke as she spoke. "Even if they remodel it, we'll all know where everything is."