After going through Eric’s diary and reports about him over and over for months, considering one type after the other, I have finally come to the conclusion that he’s an INTJ after all. I had previously considered ISTP, but eventually decided that he uses Fi, not Fe – and there was way too much Te there to count him as a Ti-dom. If you disagree with my typing, please let me know why! I’m no MBTI expert so I appreciate additional input.
ERIC HARRIS: INTJ IN A NI-FI LOOP
Ni:
Eric seems to have the opinion that he knows what everyone around him is thinking and feeling, and that he is above them because their thoughts or opinions aren’t as good as his. “alright you pathetic fools listen up; I have figured it out” Eric spends a great deal of time analysing the future. While some of his writing focuses on the sorrows and memories of his past, his main goal is on revenge rather than wallowing in his own self pity as Dylan did (Fi.) He takes information from the past to figure out his future, not to use in the present as a Si user may do. He mentions the Nazi’s killing Jewish people so that he can continue on to his plans about killing his fellow students. He uses his style of thinking to adhere to his plans for the shooting. Ni-doms also struggle with focusing on what’s happening in the here and now – although Eric seems to be a Se user, he is fidgeting constantly, staring into the distance and changing the subject in his writing whenever the thought pops into his head. His lack of attention is shown in the above gif. Eric believed that the world was a certain way, and stuck firmly to that belief. He also shows Ni in the strategic way he planned out the shooting. He focused his entire journal, in the past few entries, on the shooting, whereas Dylan continued to keep some focus on himself. Eric has very strong ideas about how he wants things to be, and how he will achieve that goal.
Te:
Eric is shown to be a Te user. He is very straightforward in his journal, not beating around the bush. This is what he feels, this is what he wants and he’ll say things as he likes. This brashness is likely what made him lose friends, especially the likes of Brooks Brown who he fell out with when he became angry over the phone. While Te users tend to be fair, Eric had many moments where he only used Ni-Fi and completely bypassed Te, clouding his judgement and only wanting things a certain way. Te users are known for being rational and diplomatic, although Eric was certainly not rational when it came to things he felt strongly about (Fi looping.) Eric took on the ‘leader’ role when spending time with Dylan – although Dylan was a willing participant in the massacre, without Eric’s careful structure and leadership I don’t believe things would have happened the way they did. He kept a kind of intimidation factor around Dylan so that he would do things as he wanted them to. Using his Ni, Eric knew what he wanted and would go to any lengths to get it, even if it meant taking advantage of his friend. Eric was good at getting others to do what he wanted, and when it didn’t go that way he became angry. Judy Brown describes the look of shock on his face when she refused to accept his fake apology, insisting that she wouldn’t fall for the lie. After years of manipulation, this must have been quite a shock for him. He is very adamant that he must ignore his feelings to focus on the task at hand.
Fi:
Ah, Fi. Where do I start!
Eric’s values were something he made very clear in his journal. KILL MANKIND, give the Earth back it’s animals, only a select few should be allowed to live, etc etc…While it was his personal journal for writing his opinions, most of his anger and planning stems from his own personal views rather than a strong desire to get something done. He wants to commit the shooting because of how people have treated him, not because he wants to make a scene (although there are other factors to it.) Eric has some very strong and controversial views, and he chooses to share them without care of whether they are socially acceptable or not. “Blacks ARE different”, “women you will always be under men” etc etc. He feels very strongly about certain topics unrelated to the shooting, that he writes long, detailed paragraphs about, often completely ignoring logic while doing so. Many of the things he says are hypocritical, go against something he previously said or make him sound less intelligent. He is constantly rethinking his views and opinions as Fi users often do, searching for flaws and correcting himself in entries as time goes on. He pulls his bad experiences in to make himself extra angry – his anger towards society would never have come about if he hadn’t brought his personal feelings and experiences into it. It is one thing to hate the way society is run, but it is ten times worse if you have had bad personal experiences with societal values or developed strong opinions after seeing the way you or someone else has been treated. Trying to ignore his feelings is a difficult task that he tries to complete in order to shoot people. He tries to live his life based off of the idea that morality does not really exist, as he believes this is the best way to think. While he has views that disagree, he does have a central morality hidden within him that keeps him wanting to empathise, even though he tries to suppress it.
Se:
Since Se is his weakest function, and especially since Eric is in a loop, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact ways he uses Se. However, one can see in his focus on the external and the constantly fidgeting that he must use Se somewhere in his stack. Eric is always on the go, either his mind is racing or his body is jittering. He can’t just sit still to think about things, he has to be drumming his fingers or spinning something in order to keep himself properly focused. Eric is very focused on the here and now in a lot of situations, using his senses to figure out what’s happening around him. He comments on a girl’s lollipop when she approaches rather than beginning to speak to her, indicating his focus on external things. He spends a great deal of time in the cafeteria video observing the other students – what he thought will unfortunately always be a mystery.
A Dylan one of these will be coming soon 😉
“someones bound to say “what were they thinking?” when we go NBK or when we were planning it, so this what I am thinking. “I have a goal to destroy as much as possible so I must not be sidetracked by my feelings of sympathy, mercy, or any of that, so I will force myself to believe that everyone is just another monster from Doom like FH or FS or demons, so It’s either me or them. I have to turn off my feelings.” keep this is mind, I want to burn the world, I want to kill everyone except about 5 people, who I will name later, so If you are reading this you are lucky you escaped my rampage because I wanted to kill you. It will be very tricky getting all of our supplies, explosives, weaponry, ammo, and then hiding it all and then actually planting it all so we can achieve our goal. but if we get busted any time, we start killing then and there, just like Wilks from the AlIENS books, I aint going out without a fight. Once I finally start my killing, keep this in mind, there are probably about 100 people max in the school alone who I dont want to die, the rest, MUST FUCKING DIE! If I didnt like you or if you pissed me off and lived through my attacks, consider yourself one lucky god damn NIGGER. Pity that a lot of the dead will be a waste in someways, like dead hot chicks who were still bitches, they could have been good fucks. oh well, too fucking bad. life isnt fair… not by a long fuckin shot when Im at the wheel, too. God I want to torch and level everything in this whole fucking area but Bombs of that size are hard to make, and plus I would need a fuckin fully loaded A-10 to get every store on wadsworth and all the buildings downtown. heh, Imagine THAT ya fuckers, picture half of denver on fire just from me and Vodka. napalm on sides of skyscrapers and car garages blowing up from exploded gas tanks…. oh man that would be beautiful.”
“My takeaway is that Harris was very Type A, in your face, very plan-oriented, very structured. Klebold was more Type B. ‘Just tell me where to go; I’ll show up, I’m good.’ So, to me, their personalities were just very, very different. Was Harris more of the man with the plan? Yeah, but I don’t think Klebold just followed along like a little puppy dog. He was in. He was all in.“
this is hella wonky but I really wanted to make one. i‘m „just here for the psychology“ btw lol)
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this post is completely satirical; therefore, if you feel offended by this I recommend you not visiting my blog or browse through the tags.
And yet, ratings are often ignored by audiences and some parents are so hopelessly out of touch with what their kids do (online or anywhere else) that it is actually not out of the ordinary to assume that TRW, AHS, and other shows with a TV-MA rating have quite a substantial amount of younger viewers. TRW is based on a YA novel and deals with teenage characters, so that automatically makes it attractive to viewers within the teenage demographic. I haven’t followed the marketing for it enough to comment further, but I am aware that the show was primarily picked up by a teenage/young adult audience since its release and so it would stand to reason that any marketing for it would have appealed to that part of the audience in particular.
While it seems to be true that the creators of TRW do not endorse the issues depicted in the show, the choices they made in telling the story and bringing it to life have been a valid cause of concern since the show’s release. I am particularly concerned about the graphic nature of the suicide scene, which experts agree can act as a trigger to viewers. The show’s handling of its sensitive matters could lead to what we call a ‘contagion effect’, which may make sensitive viewers romanticise the choices made by characters in-show and act on it. The explicit treatment of suicide in media can lead to a related increase in suicide attempts. With suicide being the third leading cause of death among people aged 10-14 and the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-34, I think that it pays to be very careful about the way in which a subject matter like this is addressed in a show that is primarily watched by young people.
I have no doubt that its creators had the best intentions at heart when they created this show, but the show does violate almost all of the media guidelines for depictions of suicide and additional warnings were added to the show by Netflix for a reason. The National Association of School Psychologists even issued a statement that said the following:
“We do not recommend that vulnerable youth, especially those who have
any degree of suicidal ideation, watch this series. Its powerful
storytelling may lead impressionable viewers to romanticize the choices
made by the characters and/or develop revenge fantasies. While many youth are resilient and capable of differentiating
between a TV drama and real life, engaging in thoughtful conversations
with them about the show is vital.”
While it is a complex story that deserves to be talked about, I think that many young viewers do not have the support system that would encourage and promote dialogue about these sensitive issues in a constructive way. Most parents were only made aware of the issues within the show retroactively, showing that they at first were not aware of what their children were watching, and many educators have expressed concern over what they have heard from the show’s viewers within their classrooms. With a show like this, it’s very important to have involved parents/educators who will watch this and open dialogue with their kids about it. If that doesn’t happen and a child/teenager is left to their own devices when it comes to coping with the isuses depicted in the show, it could affect them quite negatively and make them pick up a different message from it than the message its creators intended it to have.
Interesting and rather complex question, thank you!
The thing about Columbine is that it is one of the most impactful mass shootings ever. I recently read that it is now no longer in the ‘top 10 worst mass shootings’, which is an observation that somehow speaks of competition (who has the highest kill count?) but also clarifies just how many of these horrible events we’ve seen since 1999. However, I would argue that Columbine is at the very top of another list: that of which shooting has had the most far-reaching influence and the strongest societal impact overall. And you might say “but, hey, mama dragon, what about Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook and the like? they were huge deals too” – and yes, they were! They absolutely were. But both of these shootings again connect in with Columbine, with the Virginia Tech shooter referring to Eric and Dylan as ‘martyrs’ and the Sandy Hook shooter having been active on a Columbine-centric message board. Without Columbine, shootings like these may have looked very different or in some cases maybe would not have taken place at all.
Columbine affects potential shooters and the shooters we’ve seen since Columbine happened. Sometimes, Eric and Dylan are merely cited as influences or as icons of whatever revolution these shooters think they are kickstarting. There are often equal parts reverence (Reb and Vodka, the original figureheads of mass shootings everywhere) and derision (the failed bombers with a shitty killcount) present within these other (potential) shooters when it comes to Columbine. More importantly, though, Columbine became sort of like a mass shooting blueprint that the shooters we’ve seen since have all looked at and tried to emulate/improve upon. They learn from Columbine and study it extensively to figure out what their own plans and moves are going to look like in their finalised version.
However, these (potential) shooters aren’t the only ones who learn from Columbine and study it extensively. Law enforcement and other emergency responders thankfully do the same. I don’t know how many of you know this, but Columbine had a huge impact on how first responders react to mass shootings these days. Prior to Columbine, rapid deployment trainings were primarily given to SWAT teams. First responders were responsible for creating a safety parameter, but could not move to subdue the perpetrators of an event like Columbine until SWAT was on-scene with them. After Columbine, they started to do trainings that would allow any and all first responders to react immediately to an active shooter situation. To further illustrate the change: SWAT team experts admitted post-Columbine that they had never prepared and practiced appropriate police responses to violent assaultive conduct on the scale of Columbine, because they believed it to be too unlikely an occurrence and too far-fetched to serve as a training scenario.
Nowadays, active shooter situations are a part of training routine for many first responders.
I often think that Columbine’s impact can be felt most in the way that law enforcement has adapted its tactics/trainings to include situations like these, as well as in how schools and parents have become more discerning when it comes to spotting at-risk students who give voice to concerns similar to those that Eric and Dylan used to have. We often say that Columbine would never happen today because Eric and Dylan would get caught during their preparations, which is very likely the case as both boys dropped hints extensively and all but spelled it out for their environment before it happened. However, we also have to take into account that Columbine created this state of hyperawareness in educators and parents: Columbine was a wake-up call to them, and it’s no wonder that many have looked to Columbine to learn more about potential red flags in children’s behaviour that could give way to a dangerous situation. Columbine essentially made people across the US sit up and take note that maybe their schools weren’t the safe havens they thought they were for their kids.
Of course, if Columbine never happened.. it’s entirely likely that another shooting would’ve taken place between 1999 and 2017 that would have had a similar sort of impact to Columbine and would come to serve as a blueprint for future shootings. Eric and Dylan didn’t originate this idea, after all, and those who want to act on their sentiments will find a way to do so. That shooting would then have the huge societal and cultural impact that Columbine has in our reality, and as such would influence the way everyone handles a (potential) mass shooting much in the same way that Columbine did for us today. And in that reality, in that hypothesis, that we would still have a mass shooting epidemic without Columbine and that we would still operate with the knowledge and foresight that a high-profile mass shooting like Columbine inspires in us.. I would have to say that, yes, absolutely, 100%, Eric and Dylan would most likely have been caught during the preparation phase of their plan in this day and age. They would have had SWAT pursuing their asses into the school rather than letting them have free reign for hours if the shooting did come to pass. The only ‘worst case scenario’ that I can possibly think of is that perhaps now their bombs would have worked, given how much more extensive our resources have become with the growth of the internet. I definitely think/hope that we would not handle Columbine the same way today as people did back then, though!
What number table was Jessica Holliday under and who was under there with her ? (submitted ask)
Jessica Holliday was under table #13 with Amber Huntington and Athena Lagos. This is the diagram with her notes about her location pre-shooting and during the shooting, which also includes information about the locations of her friends and Eric/Dylan:
The futility of escaping real-life massacres begs a broader question. For an industry that excels at selling spectacular depictions of violence — especially with guns — does moving off a release date really mean anything? The violence isn’t going anywhere; it’s just moving farther into the future. What makes time-shifted violence somehow more acceptable? It feels like putting a band-aid over a bullet wound, again and again and again.
I ask this as someone who enjoyed “The Punisher” much more than I expected to. The show (which will be reviewed in full at a later date) is a remarkable expression of frustration with America’s doublespeak around the military — a doublespeak that upholds patriotism at all costs, while demeaning the people who serve in the name of national defense. And though I have found “The Punisher” engages with its subject matter in a smart and compassionate way, there is no denying the fact that the lead character Frank Castle, played by Bernthal, is the quintessential (and heavily armed) lone wolf, a gun-toting vigilante who has no qualms about taking lives. It is a brutal show, and guns feature heavily in not just the scenes of violence but in the iconography of the Punisher himself.
[..]
There’s something very scary about this character in a contemporary context. The Punisher may not be a mass shooter. But he is living out a fantasy of unrestrained violence, and he’s doing so in a way that looks very familiar. Or maybe it’s the other way around: It’s not that the Punisher looks like mass shooters, it’s that mass shooters style themselves to be men like the Punisher. Just as pop culture adapts to new norms, pop culture can create new norms. And though the jury’s still out on whether violence in the media influences the actions of mass shooters, there is increasing evidence of a correlation, especially for those exposed at a young age.
The Atlantic has published a fantastic article today on how popular culture currently treats mass shootings, using the Showtime series, Active Shooter: America Under Fire to provide context and suggestions. I highly recommend anyone interested in this topic check it out.
“There are plenty of reasons why the entertainment industry avoids the topic of mass shootings, the most salient being concerns about a copycat effect. After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, a handful of indie film directors considered the subject, in movies like Zero Day, Elephant, and Bang Bang You’re Dead.But the fact that so many lawsuits subsequently blamed pop culture itself for Columbine seems to have turned mass shootings into something most artists don’t dare touch.
There’s something awkward, though, if not outright hypocritical, in churning out cultural products that glamorize gun violence while refusing to engage with the reality of it. For one thing, stories are integral to how humans process real-life events, particularly tragedies. They encourage empathy for victims, and they attempt to convey some extent of the horror. One of Holzman’s main motivations in making Active Shooter, the producer told me, was to humanize statistics that can be hard to comprehend from news reports. The current protocol for stories that tackle mass shootings is to remove them from the public whenever real-life violence occurs—a tacit endorsement of the gun lobby’s argument that the aftermath of a tragedy is the worst time to politicize it. But what if stories can help?…
This isn’t to rail against TV shows and movies that feature gun violence, which is a different argument for a different day. It’s to underline that Hollywood unfailingly responds to mass shootings by looking away. Episodes are delayed; releases are put on hold; promotional events are canceled. Then, after a minimally disruptive period of time has passed, everything returns to normal. But while gun violence quickly becomes acceptable again to depict on film or television, the topic of mass shootings is studiously avoided. The reason that’s most frequently proffered is sensitivity to victims, but coming from an industry that’s hardly squeamish about portraying, for example, sexual violence, it’s hard to fully accept.
The fear of inspiring copycat shootings has also deterred artists since Columbine, which saw a spate of complaints against filmmakers, video-game companies, and musicians for supposedly inspiring its perpetrators. But, as with any difficult subject, there are ways to approach it without glorifying violent crimes or contributing to the mystique around perpetrators. Active Shooter, like the recent documentary Newtown, spends as little time talking about perpetrators as possible. It notes only basic biographical information that adds context to the ongoing question of why these outbreaks of horrific violence keep happening.”
Sure! There are four transcripts of note here, and as you didn’t specify which one you’re looking for I’m just going to gift you with all four. 😉 One is of the segment of the call that was released to the general public and that corresponds with the timestamped transcript which can also be found on pages
15,912-15,916 of the 11k. The second and third transcripts are more interesting by far, because they include parts of the call that were never released to the general public.
The fourth transcript is from an extended audio clip and is basically a collection of key phrases heard during the shooting:
I’m going to post the remaining three transcripts under a cut, because they’re superlong and I don’t want to clog up anyone’s dash with it..
Transcript 1:
Dispatcher: Jefferson County 911.
Patti: Yes. I am a teacher at Columbine High School. There is a student
here with a gun. He has shot out a window. I believe one student– uh..
um.. um.. I’ve been–
Dispatcher: Columbine High School.
Patti: Um.. I don’t know if it’s.. I don’t know what’s in my shoulder.. if it was just some glass he threw or what.
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: I am–
Dispatcher: Has anyone been injured, ma’am?
Patti: Yes! Yes!
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: ..and the school is in a panic and I’m in the library. I’ve got–
Students down, under the tables, kids!! Heads down under the tables!!
Um, kids are screaming, the teachers, um, are, y’know, trying to take
control of things. We need police here…
Dispatcher: OK, we’re getting them there.
Patti: Can you please hurry?
Dispatcher: Who is the student, ma’am?
Patti: I do not know who the student is.
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: I saw a student outside, I was in the hall– [sound of shots
being fired out in the hall; Patti begins to panic] Oh, dear God! Okay! I
was on hall duty, I saw a gun. I said “What’s going on out there?” And
the kid that was following me said it was a film production, probably a
joke, and I said “Well, I don’t think that’s a good idea and I went
walking outside to see what was going on. He pointed the gun straight at
us and shot and, my God, the window went out and the kid standing there
with me, I think he got hit.
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: There’s something in my shoulder.
Dispatcher: Okay. We’ve got help on the way, ma’am.
Patti: Okay. [More shots can be heard] OH, God!!
Dispatcher: Stay on the line with me.
Patti: Oh, God! ..Kids, just stay down!
Dispatcher: Do we know where he’s at?
Patti: I’m sorry?
Dispatcher: Do we know where he’s at?
Patti: Okay. I’m in the library. He’s upstairs. He’s right outside of here.
Dispatcher: He’s outside?
Patti: He’s outside of this hall.
Dispatcher: Outside of the hall or outside–
Patti: He’s in the hall. I’m sorry. There are alarms and things going
off.. There’s smoke.. My God, smoke is, like, coming into this room.
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: I’ve got the kids under tables here. I don’t know what’s
happening in the rest of the building. I don’t know– I’m sure someone
else is calling 911.
Dispatcher: Yes, we have a lot of people on… Okay. I just want you to
stay on the line with me, I- we need to know what’s going on.
Patti: Okay.
Dispatcher: Okay?
Patti: I am on the floor.
Dispatcher: Okay. You’ve got the kids there?
Patti: Okay? In the library. And I’ve got every student in the library– ON THE FLOOR! You guys STAY ON THE FLOOR!
Dispatcher: Is there any way you can lock the doors?
Patti: Um, smoke is coming in from out there and I’m a little– [More
shots, louder this time] The gun is right outside the library door,
okay? I don’t think I’m going to go out there. Okay?
Dispatcher: Okay. You’re at Columbine High School?
Patti: I’ve got– I’ve got three children–
Dispatcher: Okay. We’ve got it.
Patti: Okay. Um. I’m not going to go to the door. He just shot toward
the door. I’ve got the kids on the floor, um. I got all the kids in the
library on the–
Dispatcher: [Speaking to someone else] We have paramedics and we have fire and we have police en route, okay sir?
Patti: Okay. Okay.
Dispatcher: Yes. Bye.
Patti: Yes. I mean– He’s– I can’t believe he’s.. not out of bullets– He just keeps shooting and shooting and shooting.
Dispatcher: Okay. Yeah. We have a police officer on scene–
Patti: –I talked to him. I thought it was–
Dispatcher: Okay. Just try and keep the kids in the library calm.
Patti: Yeah.
Dispatcher: Is there any way you can block the door so no one can get in?
Patti: I think– I do not–
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: I– Yeah. I guess I can try to go, but, I mean like, he’s right outside that door. I’m afraid to go to the door.
Dispatcher: That’s okay.
Patti: That’s where he is. I’m afraid to go there.
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: Okay. I told the kids to get on the floor. I told them to get
under the tables. All of the children are on the floor, under the
tables. Um.. um.. yeah. They’re all under the tables.
Dispatcher: Okay. As long as we can just try and keep–
Patti: And I’m just trying to keep calm. No one’s saying a word.
Dispatcher: Okay. As long as we can keep everyone there as calm as we can–
Patti: I hear some yelling out there going on right now.
Dispatcher: Yeah, we’ve got alarms going off now as well.
Patti: Yeah, there’s alarms.. this room is filled with smoke.
Dispatcher: Okay.
Patti: Okay.
Dispatcher: Keep everyone low to the floor.
Patti: Yeah. Yeah. Everyone’s, uh– Everyone stay on the floor! Stay on
the floor. Stay under the tables. Um….. I… I don’t know. I–
Dispatcher: Okay, I know. Just–
Patti: I don’t know. I didn’t.. I said "What- what has that kid got?” He
was outside at the time. And.. and.. and.. um… I was on hall duty.
[Explosion] Oh, God! Um. He was going like “Woo-hoo-hoo!”
Dispatcher: I know.
Patti: –are getting shot off. I do not know who the student was. I
don’t even– I saw him. He was wearing black. He looked very large. Um.
Male student. Um.. He was out there shooting. [Another explosion] It
looked like he was… out shooting and somebody– I said “What is
that?”. [Another explosion]
Dispatcher: Mm-hmm.
Patti: I said “What’s going on out there?” Well it’s probably a cap gun.
Probably a video production, you know, they do these videos…
Dispatcher: Right.
Patti: And the kids… Well, I said– That’s not, you know, a play gun, a
real gun, I was goin’ out there to say “No.”. And I went [Another shot,
very loud] Oh, my God!! That was really close! That just rattled me.
Dispatcher: Okay.
One of the shooters: YEAH!!! [Another shot]
Patti: [whispering] Oh, God. I’m really… frightened. [More shots, extremely close] I think he’s in the library.
Dispatcher: What’s your name, ma’am?
Patti: [whispering] My name is Patti.
Dispatcher: Patti?
One of the gunman can barely be heard in the background: Everybody get up! NOW!
Patti: [whispering] He’s yelling “Everybody get up” right now. [More shots] He’s in the library. He’s shooting at everybody.
Dispatcher: Okay. I have him in the library shooting at students and..
the lady in the library, I have on the phone.. Okay. Try to keep as many
people down as you can.
Transcript 2:
PRE-LIBRARY
0:00 11:27:51 Call Begins
0:09 11:28:00
Between 0:00 & 0:43 Nielson advised dispatch she was present in the
library and had seen a student firing a weapon. Nielson indicated there
were injuries and she had instructed students in the library to stay
down 0:43 11:28:34 “Oh dear God” 0:47 11:28:38 Shot 1:06 11:28:57 2 Shots 1:07 11:28:58 “Oh God” 1:08 11:28:59 2 Shots “Oh God”
1:09 11:29:00 1:12 11:29:03 Nielson tells students stay down 1:17
11:29:08 Nielson advises one suspect outside library in hall
1:23 11:29:14 Nielson advises alarms
going off 1:24 11:29:15 Nielson advises smoke in library 1:29 11:29:20
Nielson says kids under table
1:40 11:29:31 Nielson advises she is
on the floor 1:48 11:29:39 Nielson tells students stay down 1:50 11:29:41 Shot 1:51 11:29:42 2 Shots 1:52 11:29:43 3 Shots 1:53 11:29:44 Nielson advises the gunman is just outside the library door
2:09 11:30:00 2:26 11:30:17 Shot 2:30 11:30:21 Nielson advises one suspect is just outside library entrance 2:45 11:30:36 Nielson advises students are on the floor/under table 2:54 11:30:45 Yelling 3:00 11:30:51 Nielson advises smoke in library 3:05 11:30:56 Nielson cautions stay on floor
3:09 11:31:00 3:28 11:31:19 Explosion/gunshot ? 3:30 11:31:21 “Oh God” 3:37 11:31:28 Nielson indicates she does not know student/suspect 3:40 11:31:31 Shot 3:42 11:31:33 Nielson described suspect as male student wearing black/[not] very large 3:49 11:31:40 Explosion 4:05 11:31:56 Explosion 4:06 11:31:57 “Oh my God that was really close”
9:09 11:37:00 9:53 11:37:44 Shot [Eric’s Hi Point Carbine @ Daniel Mauser] 9:54 11:37:45 “No” 9:55 11:37:46 Shot [Eric’s Hi Point Carbine @ Daniel Mauser]
No, I don’t think we’ll ever hear the full call. I think that the transcript we have of it is the closest we are going to get to the whole thing, which makes sense when you really stop and think about the huge impact of the audio. We would essentially hear so many people die or get traumatised/injured in the ordeal. That brief audio snippet of Val screaming never fails to tear my heart and stomach to shreds, and I can only imagine what the full audio of the call must sound like. I believe it’s the singlemost traumatic piece of evidence we have been given because of the sheer terror you hear in Val’s voice – it puts you right there with her, for a moment, and really allows you to get some idea of how horrifying that ordeal truly was for everyone involved. It’s also the one thing that makes it very hard to empathise with Eric and Dylan, in my opinion, because you know they are the ones inflicting that level of pain/fear at that time.
If the full call was released, we wouldn’t just hear Val. We’d hear shot after shot time and time again until we would be able to distinguish which shot killed which victim. We would perhaps catch prayers, pleas, and more screams. We would hear some of the taunts Eric and Dylan slung at their victims. We would bear witness to not just one murder but several murders, and for what reason? The only ‘benefit’ would be learning exactly what was said, in case the transcript is not fully accurate, and working out the timeline of events in a more detailed way with the audio as a guideline. We have other means of figuring out what went down in that library without this piece of evidence, though, and the only thing the audio release would do at this point in time is drag up a whole lot of trauma within the people who were there and within the people whose children died in there.
Thank you! I’m between themes at the moment on my blog, but it’s great to hear about something people appreciated seeing here! That quote (“whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars”) is something that popped up for me while I was writing something about Eric quite a while ago, and it just felt so appropriate and right for me to use since. I agree that it feels connected to Columbine in a fashion, for sure.
I hope you’re well too and that your weekend is wonderful! Mine’s shaping up quite nicely, aside from a setback in that I can’t figure out a good blog theme to use here on TDR right now. ^^ It’ll sort itself out, though, hopefully, haha!
Columbine – Brad Houston KUSA-TV Denver general news
I was on youtube trying to find clips of the news coverage/raw news scenes of columbine and I found this video, which has several things I’d not seen before and @godlike-halcyon thought people would be interested in seeing it so here it is.
Content Warning: The video contains blood and wounded students.
Who’s in the video?:
At 0:06 there’s a student on the ground with a breathing mask on.
Jeanna Park is the girl with her face visible to the camera at 0:07 – 0:12 and is talking to the interviewer, with her sister interrupting twice.
Kathy Park is the girl being held by her sister at 0:07 – 0:12.
Kacey Ruegsegger is on the grass on the right side of the screen at 0:19 – 0:21 and then placed on the stretcher at 0:22 – 0:24 and is the student on the floor at 0:29 – 0:30; you can tell because of her jean jacket and white shirt.
Bree Pasquale is talking to the camera at 0:26 – 0:30 and 1:12 – 1:31.
Austin Eubanks is the boy crying and being hugged by a woman with brown hair at 0:31 – 0:35.
Nick Foss could possibly be the shirtless blond student at 0:46 – 1:01 because he was injured after falling 15ft through the ceiling, and the way he’s holding his leg seems to be because of that, rather than a gunshot wound, which would also explain the lack of blood or bandages. There’s also a video of him shirtless and being wheeled into an ambulance here, asking about his twin brother. The reason he and other male students/witnesses are shirtless is because a lot of them removed their shirts to use as makeshift bandages and tourniquets, as is common in a mass shooting.
Jeanna Park is shown again, this time standing with Jessica Holliday, the blonde girl in a stripey top and overalls, Kathy Park and an unknown blonde girl in a white shirt at 1:00 – 1:05
At 1:05 to 1:08 the injured student on a stretcher being placed into an ambulance could possibly be Makai Hall, who was shot in the right knee and had minor shrapnel wounds to his left cheek.
The boy on the floor with the pink sheet covering him at 1:35 – 1:36 and then being placed on a stretcher at 2:06 – 2:12 and being strapped in could possibly be Mark Taylor? There’s also footage in this video of the same scene.
At 1:36 to – 1:44 there’s a girl and a woman, maybe a student of the school and her mother, ask a police officer of the whereabouts of the girl’s brother.
There’s a young man in a green shirt at 1:46 – 1:49 talking to a police officer and then at 1:56 – 1:58 being led away by said officer who looks young enough to be a student, or a sibling of a student in the school, possible asking for information about a friend, sibling or teacher.
At 1:45 to 2:04 there’s a girl talking about her sister, a student at the school, who called her and told her she was hiding in the media room with other students.
At 2:16 – 2:18 an injured student on a stretcher is being wheeled away, but it’s hard to identify who it could be because it’s so far away.
At 2:18 – 2:20 there’s a blonde girl in a white shirt talking to the camera who could possibly be the same blonde girl in a white shirt standing with Jeanna, Jessica and Kathy at 1:00, as she has the same hairstyle in both clips.
It was interesting to hear some of the students talking, who I hadn’t heard before, like Jeanna Park. It also shows the chaos that was happening outside, alongside the chaos in the school (although this was filmed after the library massacre).
The part where the EMT asks the officer which injured victim to take next is common protocol when dealing with events like this; the EMTs are constantly on the move, rushing from the place of the event and the surrounding areas where the victims have gathered waiting for medical assistance to the hospital, and the officers who have to stay on scene already know which of the injured has the most severe injuries and has a more imminent need of medical attention. In other shootings, and I imagine this one as well, injured victims often steer the EMTs to the more severely wounded, telling them ‘I can wait, help them first.’
It’s a very horrible situation to be in, not knowing if your friends, siblings or children are safe, and the video really captures the anguish and fear and pain that these people were feeling.
Hearing Austin say “they killed my best friend” and knowing he’s talking about Corey honestly broke my heart, I don’t know what I would have done in that situation.
I don’t know who the mustached man in the white shirt is, nor who any of his companions are, but i think it’s poignant that even now, 18 years later, his words about gun violence are still relevant. We’re letting it happen, and not doing anything to stop or change it, not with gun legislations or bettering the mental health care, or having an actual zero tolerance policy on bullying.
Jeanna’s comment about 1 minute into the video really resonates with me, because it’s terrifying and frustrating and horrible to think of someone who you went to school with, and vaguely knew, trying to kill you and your friends. And they only had 17 days left of school. Again, what do you do in a situation like that, knowing your friends were so close to graduating and fulfilling their dreams of going to university, getting a job, getting their own place, buying a car etc and that all of that was callously taken away from them in an instant.
I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this video; have you seen it before? What did you think of it? If you know who any of the people in the video are, please comment their names or reblog the post with their names
I think the answer to your question may be in the basement tapes themselves, if the transcript is anything to go by.. and if they wanted everyone to see them, they should’ve stuck with the plan they describe in it! (But they probably ran out of time to actually do so, given how they taped the final scene so shortly before the massacre.. ahhh, the follies of youth.)
Columbine 