He radios for backup and returns fire as bullets ricochet off lockers. Neil Gardner, the Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy assigned to the school full-time, hears shots and spots one of the gunmen in a first-floor hallway. They stay for 15 minutes before the administrator directs them outside. The attackers bang on doors, yelling: “We know you’re in there.”Ĭasey Brackley, 15, is in the gym when an administrator herds kids into the equipment room. “I heard people praying for their husbands and their children,” says Foss.
Senior Nick Foss, 18, and a friend push two teachers, a cook and another woman into a bathroom. Dozens flee the building and hide in brush around the school. Many of the 900 students in the building duck into closets and bathrooms, under tables and chairs. Word spreads: The “Trenchcoat Mafia” has gone nuts. In the cafeteria, one removes his trench coat to reveal home-made grenades. Klebold, 17, and Harris, 18, are heavily armed - an assault rifle, sawed-off shotguns, handguns. Still shooting, the two walk to the cafeteria, where food server Karen Nielsen hears someone yell, “Get down!” As the gunmen walk into the school, two students lie dead outside.
