Columbine Gunman May Not Have Shot Himself

Newly Released Documents Make Scenario Hard To Picture, Sources Say

5:11 AM, Jul 12, 2001
Columbine gunman Dylan Klebold may not have shot himself, according to information in hundreds of newly released documents from the high school shooting investigation, 7NEWS reported.

The newly released crime scene reports make it clear that Klebold was holding a gun in his right hand when he fell for the last time, and the gun was found under his right leg.

However, Klebold was shot in the left temple.

Experts said that it's hard to see how he could have possibly shot himself that way, and it is inconclusive as to who may have actually shot him.

For more than two years, Jefferson County investigators have maintained that the April 1999 murderous rampage through Columbine ended at about 12:08 p.m., when Eric Harris and Klebold turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide in the school library.

Newly released crime scene diagrams are raising questions about that proposed scenario.

In the newly released documents, the investigators said that a TEC 9 automatic weapon with a live round in the chamber was in the right hand and under the right leg of Klebold's body. The report adds that his hand was around the grip of the gun.

Klebold was shot through the left temple, and that bullet was never recovered.

Sources said that it's hard to picture how he could have shot himself in the left temple, and it's even harder to see how he could have shot himself in the head and still held on to the gun as he fell so that it would land under his right leg.

The fatal shot was a close contact wound, so it wasn't from police, 7NEWS reported.

Sources said that if Klebold didn't kill himself, Eric Harris must have killed him.

If Klebold did not kill himself, the documents left new questions unanswered, including what Harris did between the time Klebold died and Harris' own suicide, as well as if a quicker response by authorities might have prevented some violence if the shootings ended later than officials had earlier stated, 7NEWS reported.

Jefferson County officials said that they continue to believe that the evidence is consistent with Klebold committing suicide but admit that there's no way to be absolutely certain about it.

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