Columbine Interviews Released, Grand Jury Requested

Tapes Released Under Judge's Order, Family Wants Grand Jury Convened

The Jefferson County district attorney may convene a grand jury to investigate how the sheriff's department handled complaints about Columbine gunman Eric Harris. Judy and Randy Brown, parents of Columbine student Brooks Brown, requested the grand jury in a meeting with District Attorney Dave Thomas on Thursday. They claim the sheriff's department never followed through on their complaints about Harris in early 1998. The Browns said that Thomas will decide in the next 10 days. "Dave Thomas listened and will do the right thing," Randy Brown said. "He is going to investigate as best he can. But he said this may be something (he has) to send to an outside jurisdiction." Thomas already has denied one request by the Browns to convene a grand jury. He would not comment. The Browns first went to the sheriff's office in March 1998, alleging Harris had created a Web site where he described making pipe bombs and threatened to kill their son. Sheriff's investigators had prepared a written request to search Harris' house after finding similarities between Harris' pipe-bomb descriptions and a pipe bomb found in a field on Feb. 15, 1998. Detectives never followed through with the search. Meanwhile, newly released documents show that a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy who was the first officer at Columbine and who traded shots with one of the gunmen believed that he may have hit the shooter. Randy Brown

See The Columbine Parents' Reaction

Deputy Neil Gardner, assigned to the Jefferson County high school, was eating lunch in his car in a nearby parking lot when the April 20, 1999, assault began. He drove to the southwest parking lot, jumped out and took cover behind the driver's side of a Chevrolet Blazer, according to a transcript of an interview done the day of the shootings. The 94-page transcript and a CD-ROM of interviews with five other officers who fired their guns were made public Thursday after a district judge ordered their release. Denver-area lawyer James Rouse sued on behalf of victims' families for release of the report on the investigation by the Jefferson County sheriff's office. He said that he learned the latest information was made available only after the media contacted him. "I suspect there's still more stuff there in some format. Some day we'll know," Rouse said. Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson last week ordered the release of a draft request for a warrant to search gunman Eric Harris' home a year before the massacre. The affidavit was drafted after allegations that Harris was threatening people over the Internet and making pipe bombs, but was never submitted to a judge or the district attorney. Columbine families suing the sheriff's office claim that the department botched the response to the assault and could have prevented the rampage if officers would have investigated complaints about Harris. Harris and Dylan Klebold fatally shot a teacher and 12 fellow students and wounded 23 others before killing themselves in the attack. Parents Randy and Judy Brown have been tough critics of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, alleging authorities withheld information and could have done more to prevent the shooting. The Browns strongly believe that there is even more information being withheld. "You think the parents of Columbine are going to be happy when they find out that one SWAT team member fired 70 rounds down hall at no one?" Randy Brown said. The Browns want a grand jury to look into the Columbine investigation. The Jefferson County district attorney is considering that request. Rouse said that the purpose of suing under the state open-records act was to determine if the evidence backs up the sheriff's report. The department released 11,000 pages of files last November. Much of the information from Gardner's two-hour interview is known. The officer, though, told sheriff's Detective Russ Boatright the evening of the shootings that he believed the person who shot at him in the parking lot was Klebold. The report released last year said Harris was the shooter crouching outside the school's west doors and firing across the parking lot at Gardner. Gardner said that the shooter was tall, about 6 feet, skinny, with collar-length hair and was wearing a blue flack jacket and baseball cap on backward. Klebold was wearing a dark T-shirt and a cap backward on a videotape from a camera in the school cafeteria. He was much taller than Harris and had longer hair. Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Julian said that he couldn't explain the discrepancy between the transcript and report. "On face value, whatever the transcript says he responded to investigators, that's what he said he saw," Julian said. Gardner said that he fired four times at the shooter, who appeared to be reloading. He said the first shot appeared to spin the person around and "either hit him or it came real close." A summary of Klebold's autopsy has been released, but not the full report. There is no indication in that summary or in Harris's autopsy report of gunshot wounds besides massive head wounds that were apparently self-inflicted. Gardner normally ate his lunch in the faculty lounge just off the cafeteria, but went to a sandwich shop that day with Andy Martin, a security guard who worked at the school. Teriyaki chicken was on Columbine's menu, and Gardner suggested, "let's go to Subway real quick and bring it back." He and Martin were parked in neighboring Clement Park when he got a radio call for help from a janitor. He saw a few students running and smoke when he sped to the southwest parking lot. The dean of students then radioed Gardner for help and said that there had been a shooting in the school. He saw two people lying on the ground, one lifting a hand and the other still. After exchanging shots with one of the shooters, more officers arrived and established a perimeter, Gardner said. Previous Stories: