Court Filing Names Denver Officer As Rohrbough's Killer

DENVER -- The family of slain Columbine student Daniel Rohrbough (pictured, right) claims a Denver police officer killed the boy as he fled the massacre inside the school.

A motion filed Wednesday in federal court said Sgt. Dan O'Shea, a member of the SWAT team during the April 20, 1999 shootings, was identified through testimony by a Jefferson County school administrator.

That administrator, Celine Marquez, said O'Shea told her two days after the shooting that he feared he may have shot an innocent student.

According to the motion, O'Shea's handwritten police report stated he shot a 9mm machine gun from the base of a hill on which Rohrbough was shot and killed.

Numerous 9mm shell casings were found near where O'Shea said he stood and fired and Rohrbough's wounds were consistent with the student facing downhill and O'Shea firing from below, the motion said.

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The motion, which asks a judge to reconsider the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by six families against the Jefferson County school district and sheriff's office, also accuses Sheriff John Stone and his department of making 29 "blatant, bald-faced lies" about the investigation.

Among them is that the sheriff's office first identified a bullet recovered from Rohrbough's body as being from Dylan Klebold's weapon. The office later said the bullet did not come from Klebold's weapon and was never identified.

Marquez, 47, was visiting Jefferson County preschools on April 22 when she encountered O'Shea and his wife in Westridge Elementary School, where their daughter is in preschool. O'Shea had brought flowers to thank the school for keeping his daughter late on the day of the massacre after he was dispatched to Columbine.

According to the motion, Marquez thanked O'Shea for responding to the school because she had two children at the high school. O'Shea broke down crying, the motion states.

Marquez said O'Shea said he thought he had a clear shot of one of the gunmen but did not take it because he wasn't wearing protective gear.

He allegedly said he may have mistakenly shot an innocent student, but that he was relieved because he had been told that morning that ballistics tests proved that none of the victims had been struck by police bullets.

Lawyer Barry Arrington, who represents the Rohrboughs, said Wednesday that none of the bullets had been turned over for ballistics tests until May 5, 1999.

O'Shea, now assigned as a motorcycle cop to Denver's 16th Street Mall, could not be reached for comment Wednesday, the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post reported. Denver Deputy Police Chief Dave Abrams said Wednesday he was unaware of the accusation against O'Shea.

"I think it's unlikely," he said. "I would seriously doubt it."

Denver Police Chief Gerald Whitman issued a statement Thursday saying that, "The Denver Police Department Firearms Discharge Review Board (has) reviewed the case and found that the actions of all officers were within department policy.

"The Jefferson County District Attorney previously determined that, 'no injuries or fatalities resulted from any gunfire initiated' by Denver Police Officers. In a letter to former Denver Police Chief Tom Sanchez, the DA stated that 'the gunfire was utilized as a precautionary measure for entry and security purposes. Therefore, no member of your department violated any Colorado statute regarding the use of force in such discharge,' the DA said in the letter."

Brian Rohrbough (pictured, right) has long claimed his son was shot by a lawman rather than by one of the student gunmen firing from inside the school because of the upward trajectory of his fatal chest wound.

Rohrbough said he didn't know about Marquez's story until a few days before a federal judge dismissed all but one of the Columbine wrongful-death suits. After the ruling he asked Marquez if she would give a statement.

Marquez said she frequently told the story of her meeting with O'Shea.

"I didn't know it would be important to anyone. I felt I was relaying a hero's story," she said. "I feel like I met this person was a hero. I still do."

According to the motion, during the shootings, sheriff deputy Jim Taylor said a Denver police officer was near him in the lower student parking lot and that he remembers hearing machine gun fire.

"Deputy Taylor saw a boy (whom he later was able to identify as Daniel Rohrbough) running at a fast trot down the sidewalk with a group of children, and he saw this boy get shot and drop to the ground," the motion states. The motion states that Rohrbough was killed after the initial flurry of action and after the decision was made to set up a defensive perimeter around the school.

The motion also states that Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Annette Walker, who arrived at the scene late, told Rohrbough's mother she saw Daniel alive and holding a door to the school open as other students escaped.

Arrington said that contradicts the sheriff department's claim that Rohrbough was killed before any officers arrived.

In asking U.S. District Chief Judge Lewis Babcock to reconsider his dismissal of the Rohrbough lawsuit, Arrington also called for a revaluation of the official account of the shootings released by the sheriff's office.