Shooting at an American school 1999. Massacre in Kerch - an exact copy of the shooting of the American school "Columbine. Are these messages scaring you?

Columbine was not the first

The incident at the American Columbine School was not the first shooting in history. Violence and manifestations of cruelty were before that. For example, in 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer fired 30 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle inside the walls of Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. She killed the director and injured many people, including children. Cause? Brenda just didn't like Mondays.

Brenda Spencer

school student

Another case. In 1989, Patrick Edward Petrie armed himself with an AK-47 and entered the Cleveland school, but already in the city of Stockton. There, he shot more than a hundred times at children and teachers. As a result, five children died and 29 were injured. It is noted that the victims were predominantly from Southeast Asia. Having finished the massacre, Petri fired a bullet into himself. Familiar killers noted that he had a psychiatric disorder, "hatred of everything", as well as racist views regarding Vietnamese immigrants.

In general, before "Columbine" there were more than ten bloody shootings in American schools, but for some reason, teenagers around the world began to copy Harris and Klebold, and not Petri or Spencer.

Bowling for Columbine

In April 1999, American society split into "before" and "after". The watershed was the same massacre that would later become the most famous case of shooting in history. Two teenagers entered the Columbine School cafeteria, planted explosives, and then began to pour lead on everyone they see. During the fatal incident, 13 people died and 24 were injured. Not the bloodiest numbers, but it was the April events that later formed the basis of many films, books and songs: from Roger Moore's documentary to Eminem's lines in I'M Back and Rap God.

Eric Harris

student of the school

Because the shooting of Harris and Klebold is not just the behavior of two demented teenagers. They have a whole ideology behind them. Judging by the diaries they both kept, the criminals differed in character. Harris dreamed of militarism, the ideas of natural selection and hard sex with classmates. Klebold drew flowers in his diary, sighed about unrequited love and thought a lot about death. In general, these guys personified the two main teen psychologies: all-consuming hatred and languid torment. There is nothing surprising in the fact that after so many years, today's teenagers see kindred spirits in the killers - the essence of youthful suffering never changes.

Dylan Klebold

student of the school

The imitators also liked the "cloak mafia" aesthetic, which was ridiculed by the killers' classmates. A long raincoat over a thin body, army boots, hard rock from speakers, complete nihilism and a powerful interest in the orders of Nazi Germany. An explosive mixture of guidelines that makes his admirer "not like everyone else" is perhaps the perfect recipe for a teenage outsider. Shots where cinematic - what is there - guys with weapons in their hands are smashing the cafeteria, even now they are walking in the public social network VKontakte. When Gus Van Sant filmed his "Elephant", he didn't have to think of anything - he just dressed the teenagers in black clothes and it was a blast.

In itself, the idea that this world of popular and beautiful schoolchildren can be attacked by the revenge of an outsider dressed in a black hoodie will resonate at any time. As long as there are outsiders, there are black hoodies and there are weapons from which revenge can be carried. The students from Columbine could not fail to have followers.

Shooting around the world

One of the bloodiest shootings in the US happened in 2007 - eight years after Columbine. A Virginia Tech student named Cho Seung Hee entered the campus with a weapon at the ready. There he killed 32 people and injured 25 more. The student then committed suicide. Cho Seung-hee had a mental disorder - the killer was prone to outbursts of aggression.

Another bloody tragedy occurred five years ago at Sandy Hook School, Connecticut. Adam Lanza stepped over adolescence - he was 20, but he performed the entire "procedure" according to his own "Columbine" canons. First, Adam shot his mother, then he looked into the elementary school - there Lanza killed 20 small children and six adults. The director of the school was also hit by bullets. Of course, it soon became clear that the killer had mental problems: at the age of 13, Adam was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.

It is a mistake to think that shootings happen only in the USA. Yes, there are all the conditions for a mass execution in schools - the free distribution of weapons, but a ban on carrying them on the territory of state institutions. However, the bloody fashion has long spilled out of the States.

Back in 2002, a resident of the German town of Erfurt entered the building of the local gymnasium, where he used to study until he was expelled due to a false certificate of illness. The expulsion put an end to the future career of the guy, so he decided to take revenge. The killer shot 16 people until he came across a former teacher - after talking with the teacher, the teenager shot himself.

In Sweden, there was a similar case, multiplied by racial intolerance. 21-year-old Anton Lundin-Pettersson was fond of Nazism, hated immigrants and liked pictures about Adolf Hitler on Facebook. In October 2015, he opened the doors of the Kronan Public School. Anton chose the school not by chance: about 90% of "newcomers", mainly from Somalia, studied there. Before entering the building, the killer put on a black cloak and mask (to look like), and also armed himself with a sword. In total, he brought death to three people: a 20-year-old teacher's assistant, a 15-year-old schoolboy and a 42-year-old mathematician. Eyewitnesses noted that Anton was aiming at "people with dark skin."

School attacks also occurred in Finland, France and Estonia. In many cases, the aggressors knew about Columbine and deliberately imitated the style of the American assassins.

Came to Russia

As you can understand, the cult did not bypass Russia either - the case in the Perm school was not the first time that teenagers were inspired by Harris and Klebold. On the morning of September 5, 2017, 15-year-old Mikhail P from No. 1 in Ivanteevka near Moscow brought air weapons and a kitchen hatchet to the classroom. He is from a computer science teacher with whom he had a conflict. The woman received a head injury. Then the teenager went to the audience, where the second half of his 9 "A" class was sitting, to deal with long-time offenders. The attacker wore a black cloak and dreamed of militarism, which caused ridicule from his classmates; Michael wanted revenge. Fortunately, most of the students managed to escape. As a result, only three people were injured: a teacher and two schoolchildren who jumped out of windows.

Mikhail is not just a duet from Columbine in appearance - he fully shared their philosophy and even called himself Mike Klebold on the VKontakte social network. On the page, the attacker posted videos and photos with idols, and always told his friends that he wanted to repeat the path of the two killers.

The tragedy at the Kerch College has already been reclassified from a terrorist attack to a mass murder. Probably 22-year-old fourth-year student Vladislav Roslyakov admired peers who went down in history as mass murderers. In 1999, at Columbine High School in Colorado, two teenagers killed 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide. Later it turned out that the schoolchildren worked out the "virtual" execution of their comrades on home computers. Since then, cases of shooting classmates in schools have become more frequent, and the Columbine shooters themselves have become idols for dozens of teenagers with an unbalanced psyche and access to weapons around the world, including in Russia.

Lev Bidzhakov, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold. Left - Perm, right - "Columbine"

Then no one attached importance to the fact that 15-year-old schoolboy from Ivanteevka near Moscow, Mikhail Pivnev, used the pseudonym Mike Klebold in social networks - the name in the American style, and the surname of the shooter from the Columbine school. The teenager came to school number 1 with firecrackers, pneumatic weapons and a cleaver. He burst into the computer science office, hit teacher Lyudmila Kalmykova on the head with a cleaver. Then, with the words "I came here to die" and "I've been waiting for this for three years," he shot several times at the ceiling and at the head of the teacher lying on the floor.

Many of his classmates jumped out of the windows of the second floor and were injured from the fall. The teacher survived, and the teenager himself tried to commit suicide, but he was detained. Earlier, on his page on the VKontakte social network, he mentioned the Columbine school - and on April 20, 2017, he even wrote a post that he was sorry that he was not there.

At Virginia Polytechnic College, no one paid any attention to the quiet and unassuming student from South Korea, Cho Seung-hee. Meanwhile, this 23-year-old student had long and carefully hatched a plan of attack and did not hide his admiration for the Columbine shooters.

The implementation of his diabolical plan, he began with a hostel, where he opened fire with two pistols. Cho then defected to the training building, where he killed 32 people and injured 25 more. The shooter then committed suicide by recording a farewell video in which he mentioned "martyrs Eric and Dylan."

In this city, the police have worked effectively. Two 17-year-olds were arrested before the school was attacked. Ten rifles and pistols, about 20 "roughly crafted" explosive devices, camouflage uniforms, gas masks, walkie-talkies and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were confiscated from them.

William Cornell and Sean Sturtz also prepared suicide notes in which they wrote that they were inspired by the experience of the Columbine shooters. The court sentenced Cornell to 20 and Sturtz to 15 years in prison.

When Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold roamed the school with guns, they periodically caught students and asked them if they believed in God. So did 16-year-old Jeffrey Wise, who opened fire at his school in Red Lake, Minnesota.

He killed seven and injured five people, and then, after being injured by the police, he committed suicide. Before the attack, the "goth boy" (as his classmates called him) shot his grandfather and his girlfriend.

Cedar Park (USA), January 2004

In Texas, two teenagers were arrested for preparing to recreate a "Columbine-style" massacre at their own high school. Christopher Levins, 17, and Adam Sinclair, 19, have been charged with terrorism.

To hide the weapons, the couple planned to wear long coats, as the Columbine killers did. Both boys stated that they had access to weapons.

Lovejoy (USA), December 2003

The 14-year-old was going to block the fire exits, raise the alarm and shoot the panicked people. But he was detained in time and prevented this diabolical plan from being realized.

Later, he admitted that he wanted to become famous in the same way as the shooters from Columbine. He didn't have a gun, but he planned to borrow a gun from his father.

15-year-old Charles Williams did not have time to kill himself, or perhaps he simply did not have the courage, but during interrogation he admitted that he wanted to repeat the experience of the Columbine shooters.

A student entered Santana High School with two revolvers. He managed to kill two students, 13 more received gunshot wounds, but survived. Williams was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

In modern history, the murder at Columbine has a special place. The massacre arranged by two teenagers shocked the whole country. This event led to a public controversy surrounding violent video games and permitting the purchase of firearms.

Harris and Klebold

The Columbine School in Colorado was no different from thousands of similar educational institutions throughout the country. Here in the last class studied friends Eric and Dylan. They also had strange habits. A few years before the Columbine massacre occurred, students found themselves in the police because of disorderly conduct and theft of a computer.

Young people clashed with their peers. Eric Harris went to see a psychiatrist because he was diagnosed with depression. He was taking medication that could have had a negative effect on his behavior. Friends ran a blog on the Internet, where they posted amateur videos related to the production of explosives and weapons.

Shooters plan

On April 20, 1999, Eric and Dylan planned an explosion at their own school. To do this, they secretly engaged in the production of various bombs for several months. According to their plan, they were to plant explosives in the school cafeteria and go outside. After the detonator worked, the shooters were supposed to open fire on students and staff who ran out in a panic. In total, friends were going to kill up to five hundred people.

If the bombs were homemade by Eric and Dylan, then they had to resort to trickery to get the weapons. None of the shooters had yet reached the age of majority, so they asked a friend who went to Denver to buy guns. The girl was unaware of the plans of Harissa and Klebold.

Start of attack

On April 20, 1999, friends came to their school. They went to the cafeteria, where they quietly planted bombs with detonators, after which they hurriedly went outside. However, the explosion did not happen at the appointed time. At first, Harris and Klebold decided to wait a few more minutes for reassurance. However, when nothing happened after that, they switched to plan B.

It consisted in the fact that the shooters took weapons from their car and went to the classrooms to arrange a massacre. Thus began the massacre at Columbine High School. As Harris took his gym bag with him, he was greeted by a school friend who asked him why he missed class. Instead of a clear answer, Eric said to a friend: “I like you. Leave. Go home." A minute later, this guy heard the first shots.

First killed

The first victims of the shooters were a couple who were sitting on the lawn in front of the school. The girl died immediately from bullet wounds, and her friend later became disabled. After that, the shooters opened indiscriminate fire on the guys who were in sight. So three friends were seriously injured, who decided that the high school students were just playing them.

Subsequently, the massacre at the Columbine school was transferred inside it. The shooters entered the building from the back entrance. Once in the western wing, they began to shoot those who were in the corridor. The next targets were the students sitting in the classrooms nearby. One of the teachers went to the library, from where she called 911. Soon the police learned about the incident. The outfit went to the school.

When the police arrived, Klebold and Hariss were already inside the building. The officers managed to notice the shooters through the window, after which a shootout ensued. However, no one was hurt or injured.

Massacre in the library

At this time, friends were heading to the library. This is where they killed the most people. Their victims were 10 students. They all hid under tables when Dylan Klebold and his comrade entered the room. However, this did not save them. Here, the shooting at the US Columbine School was carried out to kill. The killers came close to their victims and shot them in cold blood. Teenagers mocked the wounded and dumbfounded peers, asking them tricky questions about the desire to die and faith in God. The shooters were clearly enjoying themselves. According to surviving eyewitnesses, Klebold and Harris were constantly laughing and joking with each other.

In addition, the comrades took carbon dioxide bombs with them, which they decided to use directly in the library. One of them was thrown under the table where a school student was hiding. Some of the victims were fired as many as a dozen shots. When the friends left the library twenty minutes later, 12 people had already been killed in the school. Another teacher bled to death and died some time later. Thus, Klebold and Harris took the lives of 13 people. The list of the dead appeared in a few hours after the tragedy.

Friends return to the dining room

The shooters descended into the dining room, where the failed bombs were still stored. Eyewitnesses recalled that while still in the library, one of the friends said that they would blow up the school anyway. Apparently, they went to the dining room to finally activate the explosives stored there. Surveillance cameras were working in the room, which recorded the guys in the last minutes of their lives. The comrades puzzled over how they had with them which was produced in the garage in preparation for the attack on the school.

Harris threw the bottle at the place where the bombs were kept. Friends hurriedly left the room, expecting an explosion. It happened, but its power was not at all as deadly as the schoolchildren had hoped. A security camera recorded the moment the cafeteria was on fire, following the explosion of a fireball from a bomb.

Suicide of Harris and Klebold

In the meantime, an evacuation of students was organized on the street, who were injured even before the shooters were in the building. The police developed a plan of action. Special forces arrived on the scene. The situation was aggravated by the fact that no one knew the exact number of attackers on the school. Initially, the police believed that they were dealing with an organized terrorist attack in which a dozen people took part.

When the friends left the cafeteria, they headed back up to the top floor. From there began the last skirmish with the policemen who were on the street. Friends fired until they had almost no bullets left. Then the shooting at the US Columbine school ended, Hariss and Klebold went to the next room, where they committed suicide.

The work of sappers and special forces

After the noise at the school subsided, the police still decided to storm. Special forces and sappers were sent there. The latter took up the library, where there were several failed bombs. They needed to be neutralized in the first place, as they interfered with the evacuation of the wounded and the removal of the corpses. Soon, the sappers were informed that explosives were also stored in the teenagers' car. They were also disposed of, and no one else was hurt. It turned out that the shooters did not take with them all their ammunition. Explosives and ammunition were found in the car.

However, when SWAT was in the building, it became clear that the shooters had already been finished. Their bodies were found nearby in a burning room on the top floor. Apparently, Eric Harris left behind a Molotov cocktail that crashed and started a fire. This was evidenced by the smoke detector signal, which worked a minute after the death of teenagers. Suicides fired shots in the mouth and temple. Death for them came instantly.

The meaning of tragedy

Together with the names of the shooters, the list of the dead includes 15 people. In memory of the victims, a memorial complex was built in the city. At the time when the shooting at Columbine School had just happened, it was the third largest such incident in US history by the number of victims. We are talking about massacres in educational institutions. However, it was this case in Colorado that became world famous.

The reason for this was the work of the then media. Soon there were dozens of reporters from various television channels and newspapers near the school. The tragedy also resonated with the international community. It was the journalists who drew the attention of every American to what happened in an ordinary provincial school. The society demanded the results of the investigation by the responsible authorities.

Since that April day, the whole world has known that the Columbine School exists. The year 1999 remained in the mass consciousness associated with this tragedy. The word "Columbine" has become winged. Unfortunately, similar incidents of shootings in US educational institutions, including schools and universities, continue to be repeated.

In 2007, a similar tragedy occurred at Virginia Tech when 33 people died. A few years later, gunfire broke out at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It killed 28 people.

Investigation of what happened

When the names of the shooters became known to the police, investigators immediately went to their homes. They feared that important evidence would be destroyed. That did not happen. The investigation continued until January 2000, when details of what had happened were made public.

Until that moment, various conspiracy theories of what happened were popular in the United States. For example, teenagers were considered religious fanatics who staged a massacre at the Columbine School. generally was full of scandals associated with various totalitarian sects.

public scandal

After the details of the life of two shooters from Colorado became clear, there were several media scandals. Investigators found Harris' diaries, where he described in detail his impressions of the computer game Doom. In this shooter you need to shoot at numerous monsters. Many Americans accused the game of promoting violence.

In addition, the public criticized several groups that teenagers listened to. Rammstein musicians from Germany were especially persecuted. They were known for their provocative entourage on stage. In addition, the lyrics of their songs often touched on the topic of violence, hatred and intolerance. Members of the group denied all accusations and condemned the shooters. A similar campaign was waged against Marilyn Manson. This American performer was noted for having prepared a special publication in the press, in which he talked about the causes of the tragedy. In addition, the musician wrote two songs dedicated to what happened at the Columbine school.

There was a heated discussion about the sale of firearms. In the aftermath of the tragedy, several states introduced laws prohibiting or restricting such trade. American law has a number of features. General federal regulations do not apply in such matters. Each subject of the state decides in its own way whether to allow or prohibit the sale of weapons. The same rules apply to the regulation of the death penalty, etc.

ALL PHOTOS

One of the worst school massacres in US history took place at Columbine High School (Columbine, to be precise) in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999.

Two young men, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, burst into Columbine High School with weapons in their hands. The terrible massacre lasted four and a half hours. During this time, the young terrorists wounded dozens of students and killed twelve fellow students and one teacher, after which they committed suicide. The school has now been repaired and outwardly nothing reminds of the recent tragedy.

Eighty investigators were involved in the investigation. They collected ten thousand physical evidence and questioned fourteen hundred witnesses. Commentators have tried to figure out how such a senseless massacre could have happened - in other words, how to prevent a repeat of this nightmare with the help of logical thinking, scientific and technological achievements, energetic actions and good intentions.

In this way, the country was able to get to know the two now-deceased teenage boys who made it all happen.

Both were "outcasts": they did not shine in sports, they did not differ in charm, they did not use the love of classmates. They wore long black coats. Played bloody computer games. They listened to the cacophonous compositions of rock bands, glorifying hatred with exquisite words. They were obsessed with the Nazis - their crime, of course, was timed to coincide with Hitler's birthday. Their imagination was excited by death: not true death, but death as a mysterious, enigmatic power, which every offended, capricious, embittered child is endowed with.

Parents of teenagers should have foreseen what happened, some said. And the police should have foreseen - the boys had already been arrested before. One day, a fellow practitioner's father even alerted the authorities that the boys threatened to kill his son and blow up a bunch of people; he found a website on the Internet where one of them posted instructions for making bombs and vicious threats: “I'll get to ALL of YOU soon, and I'll come with weapons. I WILL shoot to kill." The site had a three and a half page list of "What I Hate". The future terrorist hated school. Hated liars. Hated Star Wars fans.

Two boys from well-to-do, stable, decent families, middle-class white kids who went to a nice school in a well-groomed suburb. How could such a nightmare happen in a place like this? To this question, American psychologists have only one, not very constructive answer: judging by the facts, such nightmares happen only in such places.

Even before this, the most horrendous case, a whole wave of murders committed by teenage children in schools swept through the United States. Before the tragedy at Columbine, fourteen people had been killed in schools and dozens injured.

After the massacre in Littleton, threats to blow up schools were heard throughout the United States. The administration of educational institutions tried to take practical measures to the best of their understanding. The Columbine killers wore black jackets—and many schools banned long black coats. Bags and backpacks were now checked, or only transparent and mesh were allowed, or not allowed at all. New high-tech devices appeared in schools: security systems, loudspeakers and intercoms, surveillance cameras.

However, a homemade bomb made from a piece of pipe stuffed with nails was found in a hotel where a high school prom was held in Florida. Another "pipe bomb" was found in a school toilet in a small Oklahoma town. Not far from Detroit, a certain school had to be urgently closed: first, a bomb was found outside, then it turned out that four students - two fourteen-year-olds, one thirteen-year-old and one twelve-year-old - were preparing a massacre.

On May 20, exactly one month after Columbine, in the suburbs of Atlanta, a fifteen-year-old boy armed with a .22 pump-action shotgun and a . mouth and allowed himself to be bound. He lived in a big house with a vast green lawn. He played baseball and was a Boy Scout. It remained unclear whether he loved God, but reporters found out that on Sundays this child went to church. Three and a half hours after the attack, the US Senate passed the relatively harsh gun control bill for the first time.

A few more times after 2001, mentally unbalanced schoolchildren opened fire in US schools, but not on such a scale.

A new case of shooting at an American school. 17 dead, and it is possible that this figure may increase - several victims are in critical condition.

It all happened in Florida, in a city that was voted the safest city in the state last year. The massacre was staged by a former student who was expelled due to discipline problems. He returned to school with a rifle and did everything to kill as many people as possible.

Teenagers leave Parkland High School in groups under police supervision. While TV journalists are trying to figure out what is happening, the first videos shot by children in school classes appear on Twitter.

One of the students describes everything that happens online. On his page there are photos of the room where he hides, with the comment: “There is a shooting in my school, I am locked inside and scared.” The boy was later evacuated.

The criminal, apparently, planned to kill as many people as possible. Before opening fire, he set off the building's fire alarm to lure the students out of the classrooms. The shooter came to the school wearing a gas mask and brought smoke bombs with him.

The special operation to free the teenagers lasted about an hour and a half.

“We locked the children in classrooms, laid them on the floor. Some were hidden in closets. I hid 19 people. We lived through the worst nightmare of our lives,” said teacher Melissa Falkowski.

After some time, the police take a young man in a burgundy T-shirt out of the building. Nicholas Cruz, 19, attended the school and was expelled due to disciplinary issues. According to his acquaintances, he was fond of weapons and often got into trouble. In his Instagram there are many photos with pistols, rifles, knives. The press, citing local authorities, reports that Cruz could have had mental problems.

The shooting in Parkland was one of the bloodiest in American history. It was difficult for television commentators to cope with emotions.

In American schools, shootings now occur every week. In order to teach children how to behave in such circumstances, they began to regularly conduct trainings with the participation of special services. A similar practice took place at Parkland High School two months ago.

And in March, educational institutions will also receive shooting simulators - schoolchildren and teachers will learn how to act in extreme situations in virtual reality. The program was developed by the Department of Homeland Security in conjunction with the US Army and allows you to play different scenarios of the shooter's behavior.

True, many Americans believe that only a tightening of the law on the circulation of weapons can change the alarming situation. The "Florida shooter" had a semi-automatic rifle with him and a lot of magazines with cartridges. Where he bought it and, most importantly, how he brought it to school, the investigators will now find out.

US President Donald Trump discussed the circumstances of the tragedy with the Governor of Florida and offered him federal assistance in the investigation. He also expressed condolences to the families of the victims, noting that American schools must finally become safe.