Fourteen-year-old Steven Robert Curnow, a Caucasian male, was a freshman at Columbine High School with a passion for soccer and a dream of one day becoming a Navy top gun pilot. He was a dedicated referee, a pursuit his father had encouraged to deepen his understanding of the game he loved. A huge fan of Star Wars, he was eagerly anticipating the release of 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.' Just two weeks before his death, he had a conversation with his mother, telling her, 'Mom, I bet there aren't many guys who can discuss things with their moms like we do.' This loving and enthusiastic teenager's life was tragically cut short on April 20, 1999, making him the youngest victim of the devastating massacre at his school in Littleton, Colorado.
On that Tuesday morning, Steven was in the school library during his lunch period, sitting at a computer table. The terrifying ordeal began when two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, initiated a planned assault on the school. After their homemade bombs placed in the cafeteria failed to detonate, the pair began a shooting rampage. They eventually made their way into the library, where many students, including Steven, were hiding. Inside the library, a scene of horror unfolded as the two gunmen moved through the room, shooting their classmates. Hiding under a computer table, Steven was shot in the neck by Eric Harris with a sawed-off shotgun and died inside the library.
The perpetrators, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, ended their attack by taking their own lives in the library, and thus were never arrested. However, the investigation that followed led to the prosecution of individuals who had helped them acquire their weapons. Mark Manes, who sold a TEC-9 handgun to one of the shooters, was sentenced to six years in prison. Another man, Philip Duran, who had connected the shooters with Manes, also received a prison sentence for his role in the illegal gun transaction. Their actions stood in stark contrast to the life of the young boy they inadvertently helped to arm the killers of, a boy who loved the green of the soccer field and the imagined worlds of a galaxy far, far away.
