NATURE VS. NURTURE: CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

Facts of shooting:
Beginning Time: 11:19 am
Place: Columbine HS
Date: April 20th, 1999
Ending time: 12pm

Shooters:
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

NATURE

• Both prescribed antidepressants
• Both described by family and friends as "normal" and "nice"

NURTURE

• Social outcasts "Trenchcoat Mafia"
• Goth culture
• Bullied
• Violent games, music, tv

ERIC HARRIS

• "Mastermind"
• Most hateful
• Loved Hitler (shooting on Hitler's birthday)
• On Luvox after Zoloft didn't help his obsession with homicidal and suicidal thoughts

DYLAN KLEBOLD

• On Paxil and Zoloft
• Less violent
• Went to prom 3 days earlier
• Was the follower
• Household held no guns

PLAN

• Plant bomb outside school set to go off at 11am
• Everyone will evacuate
• Kill on sight

When the explosive did not go off Harris and Klebold went inside the building and opened fire. Specifically in the library.

PREVIOUS "WARNING SIGNS"

• Harris' obsession with killing himself or others
• "Trenchcoat Mafia"
• 1998 being arrested (theft, sent to diversion program, let out early for 'good behavior)
• Depression (medications famously known for side effects of violence, especially when switching)

Eric Harris considered the shooting to be "Judgement Day". Testimony from survivors lead investigators to believe athletes, minoritites, and Christians were primary targets

-Investigative Journalist Dave Cullen-
Harris-> "the callously brutal mastermind
Klebold-> "quivering depressive who journaled obsessively about love..."

The rampage finally ended at 12pm when the pair committed suicide, Harris first followed by Klebold

At 11:35
12 students and 1 teacher dead, 20 more wounded.