Five Shootings Inspired by the Columbine Massacre of 1999

On April 20th, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, two young men, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both from Colorado, walked into Columbine High School to commit one of the most infamous massacres to ever occur in US history. Leaving thirteen victims dead, Eric and Dylan shot themselves in the library. They planted two 20-pound propane bombs in the school’s cafeteria, hoping to kill around 400 students. Thankfully, the bombs failed to detonate. Carrying four guns and 27 pipe bombs, they committed the most triggering shooting in America, 17 days before their graduation.

The Virginia Tech Massacre

On April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, Seung-Hui Cho, a 23 year old South Korean man studying at The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University walked into school on a Monday morning loaded with ammunition to commit what was once known as worst mass school shooting in the United States.

Cho murdered 32 people and injured 17 others, and at the end of it all turned the gun on himself. Six more people got injured during their escape. Cho was enrolled as a senior, majoring in English. Many in the school described him as always being “alone” and had very antisocial traits. Some time before the shootings, he was accused of taking pictures of women’s knees and legs during class time. While the teacher wanted to remove him from the class, this case was ignored. After killing his first two victims, Cho mailed a package to NBC news, full of documents of him speaking about why he committed the heinous crime. From those documents we have come to know that Cho had a liking for the Columbine killers, admiring them and their murders. Cho was ultimately insane, with many psychological issues and personal problems of his own.

Orange High School

On August 30th, 2006, Alvaro Castillo drove to Orange High School, North Carolina, shooting past multiple securities, and then running into the high school to commit a school shooting. He set off 3 smoke bombs and injured two students, as well as killing his father on the morning of the shooting. He did so to “put him out of misery”. Castillo had numerous pipe bombs put away in his car. Similar to Cho’s case, he sent out a letter and video to Chapel Hill News, speaking about the shooting and his father’s murder. Castillo was obsessed with the columbine shootings, making multiple videos and posting them online about the famous shooting, as well as having his mother drive him to Colorado to see Columbine High School and Blackjack’s pizza, which is where Eric and Dylan used to work. He even praised the killers as he was being arrested, yelling at the media and emergency services and other people in the area. During the shooting, Castillo was dressed in a Colorado shirt and a black trench coat he bought during his trip to columbine, very similar to the one Dylan Klebold was wearing during the columbine shooting. He was even armed with a sawed off shotgun named Arlene, which is what Eric had nicknamed his own shotgun. His videos included multiple shots of Castillo beating himself, yelling, whispering and even singing. While no one was murdered, this case is still one of the scariest ones inspired by Columbine.

The Aurora Century 16 Cinema Shooting

On July 20th, 2012, Century 16 cinema in Aurora, Colorado, was holding a midnight screening of The Dark Night Rises when James Holmes walked into the cinema, armed with guns and tear gas grenades, shooting into the audience rapidly. Holmes killed twelve victims, the youngest being a six-year-old girl named Veronica, and injuring 70 others, which is the largest number of casualties reported in the US. After Columbine, it is the most deadly shooting to ever occur in Colorado. Holmes was pleaded not guilty, by reason of insanity. Most recently, he was given twelve life sentences, one for each life he took, and 3,318 years for attempted murder. Holmes had also rigged his home with explosives. Interestingly, two of the jurors for Holmes’ case were Columbine survivors. Holmes was later diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, and was known to make flat jokes, which often made people feel uncomfortable, as well as being excessively obsessed with killing, but it was very clear that Holmes was deeply engaged and interested in multiple shootings, especially the Columbine High School shooting

Heritage High School

After the month – long anniversary of the Columbine shooting, T.J Solomon, 15, opened fire at his high school on May 20th 1999. He shot and wounded six students. At first, he was charged with 351 years of prison but later was found guilty but mentally ill, and his sentence was shortened to 20 years in prison and probation for 65 years. This shooting was odd and surprising, as he was known to regularly attend church and did not fit into the presumed culture of school shooters. He was also raised in a Georgian home in the upper middle class. He did, however, look up to the Columbine killers. Little by little, Solomon’s grades got lower and he made multiple suicidal threats to his friends. He had recently broken up with his then girlfriend, and later detached with friends and family. While he knew how to shoot a gun, it was almost as if he were reluctant to do so, and aimed usually aimed his gun below the waist, keeping his firearm low. He also had many more dangerous guns that he could use and yet chose to use a .22 Caliber instead. Once the shooting was over, Solomon walked out the building, kneeling, and pulled out a much more dangerous gun, with the barrel up his mouth. The school Principal successfully succeeded talking Solomon out of suicide. Many think a drug called Ritalin, prescribed for hyperactivity, caused Solomon’s rampage. He was also medically treated for depression. While authorities did not say weather it was intended to happen on Columbine’s anniversary, it scared Littleton into thinking this would happen regularly. The shooting was eerily similar to the Columbine shooting.

Sandy Hook Elementary

The Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting is one of the most recent ones on this list. It was committed December 14th, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, by Adam Lanza, who was twenty years old at the time. He murdered 20 children and six adults who were working as staff members in the school as well as injuring two others. Lanza also shot and killed his own mother, who bought the weapons used in the rampage, in his home before proceeding to drive towards the school. At the end of the shooting, Lanza turned the gun on himself. It is known as the second deadliest mass school shooting in the US, after Virginia Tech. Lanza attended Sandy Hook briefly as a child and it was fairly clear that he was interested in many killings. Lanza praised many shootings, including the Columbine shooting of 1999. It was reported that he once phoned the radio station comparing a killer to Travis the chimpanzee, a chimp that ripped a woman’s face off, nearly killing her. As well as being diagnosed with Asperger’s at the age of thirteen, Lanza was anorexic as a teenager and his father believes he had schizophrenia for which he was undiagnosed. He was heavily interested in many shootings, and police forces and investigators said he was “obsessed” with the Columbine shootings of 1999. During his primary years at Sandy hook, he once wrote a story about a character who kills his own mother, and it also featured child violence. His obsession with mass murderers was featured on a spreadsheet Lanza created, listing information about shootings over the years. He also had a large amount of materials about Columbine on his laptop, including videos where he acted as Eric and Dylan and a copy of the investigation that took place in Columbine. Sandy Hook Elementary was later demolished, along with Adam Lanza’s former home in Connecticut.

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