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Some question why Sue Klebold is speaking out

Posted at 9:51 PM, Feb 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-14 16:49:17-05

It's been almost 17 years since two teenagers took the lives of their peers and one teacher at Columbine High School. As Diane Swayer spoke with the mother of one of the gunmen during a special edition of "20/20," Denver7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski said there's already a tremendous amount of response and reaction. 

One of those reactions comes from Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was left paralyzed from the bullets fired on that April day in 1999.

On Thursday, sheposted an open letter to Sue Klebold, writing: 

"I think it's appropriate that the program that you are appearing on is named "20/20." Hindsight is truly 20/20 and I am sure you agonized over what you could have done differently." Hochhalter adds, "I have no ill-will toward you.  Just as I would not want to be judged by the sins of my family members, I hold you in that same regard."

Klebold sent letters to parents and the surviving victims in the months following the shooting. Hochhalter acknowledged that letter in her Facebook post last night. 

In that same post she wrote, "It's been a rough road for me... with many medical issues because of my spinal cord injury and intense nerve pain... but I choose not to be bitter towards you." She concluded, "I have forgiven you and only wish you the best."

But not everyone is responding the same way. 

Many of the parents of the 12 students who did not return home from school that day question Klebold's motives for speaking out now, and not immediately after the massacre. 

"I think the concern is... is that for those families, they never got a satisfactory answer from the Harrises or the Klebolds," said Denver7 Investigator John Ferrugia, "and I think they never felt the Harrises or the Klebolds ever said to them that, they were sorry."

Kovaleski also spoke with Diane Sawyer before the 20/20 interview, and said Klebold had a hard time grappling with the truth about the mass shooting.

"She says that at first she didn't want to believe it, didn't feel she could believe it. And so she wanted to take time and look back and make sure she was really looking at what happened," said Sawyer. "And also she talks about the shame. She talks about fear."

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