On the morning of April 20, 1999, Daniel Lee Rohrbough, a 15-year-old male student at Columbine High School, was enjoying a meal with his friends near the west entrance of the school. This seemingly ordinary day in Littleton, Colorado, was shattered when two of his fellow students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, began a meticulously planned assault on the school. Daniel was one of the first victims in a tragedy that would become one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
As Harris and Klebold initiated their attack, they opened fire on students outside the school. Daniel was shot at close range in the chest, abdomen, and leg. He succumbed to his injuries on the sidewalk, just steps away from the safety of a nearby park where he had been headed for lunch. For nearly two days, his body remained where he had fallen as law enforcement worked to secure the chaotic scene. The public nature of his death, captured by news helicopters, brought the horror of the event into stark reality for his family and the world.
The perpetrators of this horrific act were 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold. The two seniors had been planning their assault for over a year, with the initial intent of detonating propane bombs in the cafeteria to kill hundreds of their classmates, and then shooting any survivors. When the bombs failed to detonate, they resorted to their secondary plan of a shooting rampage. After killing 12 students, including Daniel, and a teacher, and injuring many more, Harris and Klebold took their own lives inside the school library. Because the suspects died by suicide, no arrests were made in direct connection with the murders they committed. However, two men who supplied weapons to the shooters were later identified and sentenced to prison.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, a painful controversy arose concerning the exact circumstances of Daniel's death. His family was initially led to believe by a family friend within law enforcement that Daniel may have been a victim of 'friendly fire' from a responding officer. This claim prompted a lawsuit and further investigation. However, an independent investigation ultimately concluded that the fatal shots were fired from Eric Harris's weapon. The officer who had made the initial claim later admitted to fabricating the story.
