Stephen Austin Eubanks, 16 in 1999.

He was with his best friend Corey DePooter in the library when the shooting began. When the teacher ran in telling everyone to get down, he, Corey, Jennifer Doyle, and freshman [Peter Ball] hid under the same table. Then the shooters entered the room. Austin heard a bomb go off in the library, and could hear the gunmen walking around randomly shooting people. He didn't know them. He had seen them around school and only knew their first names.

At one point Austin heard a male voice [John Savage] ask the shooters what they were doing, to which [Dylan] responded "Oh, just Killing people." He then told the boy to get out of the library.

"Everything's going to be okay," Corey told Austin quietly.

The armed teens stopped at the table Austin was hiding under. [Dylan] yanked a chair out of the way, shoved his semi-automatic gun under the table and pulled the trigger. Austin covered his head. [Eric] also fired his carbine rifle under the table, hitting Corey, Jenny, and Austin. When the shooting stopped, Austin looked up and saw Corey bleeding badly.

When the shooters finally left the library, Austin checked Corey's pulse. His best friend was dead. Austin and the other survivors under the table got up and ran outside. They were met by police officers who transported them to triage. Austin was treated for a gunshot wounds to the hand and a bullet grazed knee. He was released from the hospital the same day and graduated from Columbine High School on May 20, 2000.

Austin struggled with opiod addiction ever since he was hospitalized due to his injuries. He was in and out of treatment, and eventually became a public speaker who addressed addiction. His talks were well-received. He married and had two kids before he divorced.

In May 2019, shortly after the 20th year following the tragic shooting, Austin relapsed and died from an accidental heroin overdose. He was 37 years old.

Nicholas "Nick" Foss, 18 in 1999.

Nick was in the cafeteria eating lunch when he heard a girl shout: "Someone's shooting! Someone's shooting!". He saw two guys outside with guns, and recognized one of them as Eric, a guy in his Psychology class. He mistakenly told investigators later that the other shooter's name was "Dan". In one statement, Nick said he ran outside and asked them what they were doing and they pointed their weapons at him. In another report Nick told investigators that he went over to one of the victims who had "half of his face blown off and was obviously dead" before the gunmen fired on him.

He ran back into the school, reaching the cafeteria as a large bomb inside went off. It shattered the windows of Rebel Corner*, causing him to fall back against a wall. He then heard several pipe bombs go off, at which point he ran to the staff lounge and hid in the bathroom with several other individuals, including student Tim Kastle and teacher Joyce Jankowski, where they all stayed for roughly 45 minutes listening to the shooters fire their weapons.

According to statements Nick gave investigators, it was his suggestion that they might be able to escape through the ceiling ventilation shaft. Jankowski tried first only to fall through the ceiling. Tim tried next and was able to get out. Nick went up next and tried to escape by crawling through the ceiling but wound up falling through into the teacher's lounge. He was able to run from the building to police officers waiting outside.

He had a twin brother, Adam, who was also in the school at the time of the shootings. Trapped in an office, Adam helped other students up into the ceiling where the air wasn't so stuffy so they could breathe easier while they hid.

Nick was treated for slight injuries sustained in the 15 foot fall through the ceiling and the bullet that grazed his head. Released April 20, 1999. He told investigators later that he felt as though angels were watching over him that day because one of the killers pointed a gun at his head but it didn't go off when the shooter pulled the trigger. He graduated from Columbine in May, 1999.

* This section has been corrected to remove reference to the propane bomb. The timeline Nick described places him in the cafeteria when a bomb destroyed the school store windows, not when the propane bomb went off nearly 20 minutes later.

Joyce Jankowski, 45 in 1999.

When the shooting began Joyce, a teacher at Columbine, was in the faculty lounge about to have lunch with staff members Judy Greco and Coach Dave Sanders. She heard a commotion outside and when she looked out the window she saw two bodies. Greco tried to call 911 but the phone was dead. Several shots soon followed and Jankoswki and another teacher, Amy Burnett, ran into the small one-person bathroom that was attached to the teachers' lounge.

There were two other faculty members already there (cafeteria worker Karen Nielsen and teacher Sue Caruthers). Three students (Nick Foss, Tim Kastle, and Sean Nossaman) joined them. When Nick came in, Jankowski heard him say: "Oh my God, I saw some kid's face get shot off, and I got hit!" She told investigators that Nick took off his shirt but she didn't see any injuries.

They heard loud voices and several loud bangs outside the room. About 10 minutes later they heard four quieter shots and Nick said he thought that was probably the police shooting at the gunmen. Jankowski then heard a "whoosh" sound and smelled something like natural gas.

While they hid in the restroom, the group discussed their options, afraid that the shooters might come into the bathroom. According to Jankowski, it was Tim Kastle who first suggested that they could go up into the ceiling. He stood on Nick's shoulders and climbed up; Jankowski followed. She started to move toward what she thought was a vent leading to the outside of the building but almost immediately fell through the ceiling. She landed astride a cable and then fell to the floor. She went back to the bathroom door, knocked, and was let back in. Shortly after, she heard a loud explosion that caused everything in the room to shake.

After about 40 minutes after the attack began, they heard intense voices that sounded as though they were right outside the bathroom door. Jankowski then heard two rather calm male voices outside the door and the sound of some metal objects being moved around. The group in the bathroom discussed what they should do, but before they could decide, a student's head appeared in the open spot in the ceiling where Tim Kastle had gone out. He told the group that they should "run off now".

Jankowski and the others ran through the cafeteria and out the northwest door to a police unit stationed near the school. She saw Tim Kastle already there and heard him telling an officer that the gunmen were Dylan Klebold and a boy named Harris. Jankowski was asked by investigators if she knew the shooters. She told investigators Dylan had been in her class two years prior, and she recalled him as quiet, grade-conscious, and creative.

She was treated for injuries sustained in the fall through the ceiling when she tried to escape the school and was released April 20, 1999.

Adam Kyler, 16 in 1999.

Adam was in the cafeteria when the shooting began. He told investigators later that fellow victim Kyle Velasquez had been sitting at his table sometime before the shooting began. Adam heard Coach Dave Sanders yell for the students to get down when the shooters opened fire. Adam then heard popping noises and turned to look and saw Dylan Klebold coming in through one of the doors on the south wall. When he heard three or four shots come from the area near Klebold, Adam got up and ran north toward the kitchen. Just before he reached the serving line Adam was hit with a chair in the ribs.

He got back to his feet with the help of his friend, Dusty Hoffschneider, and the two of them ran toward the kitchen. Adam went into the storage area while Dusty ran back toward the west side of the cafeteria where he pulled the fire alarm and ran out. Adam went to hide in the kitchen.

Adam and 18 other people stayed hidden in the kitchen where they barricaded the doors. At one point they heard the doors rattle but the sound soon stopped when whoever was on the other side couldn't get in. They stayed there for several hours, able to talk to the Denver police from a phone there. They stayed there till the SWAT team told them to get into the bathroom where they were then evacuated by way of the staff lounge.

When authorities asked Adam how he knew Dylan, Adam told them that Dylan had begun harassing him at school around November and December 1998. It got so bad that Adam's mother, Susan Kyler, reported it to the school authorities who said they would take care of the problem. There were no further issues with Klebold after that.

When the Kylers reported Dylan back then, Adam had told investigators that Dylan had been with a group of four kids in black trenchcoats had told him near Christmas 1998 that they would kill him if he went to class and that if he told anyone about the threats they would shoot him. He also said at the time that these students were part of a group known as the Trench Coat Mafia. However, in a later interview with officials, he said he hadn't had any problems with any of the other Trench Coat Mafia students except for Dylan during the harrassment. He said then that while Dylan was harrassing him three other students, believed to be Trench Coat Mafia members, were with Dylan but that they weren't actually involved in the harrassment. Susan told investigators that Adam had a learning disability and that she believed it to be the reason Dylan had harrassed her son.

He was treated for abdominal pain and released April 20, 1999.

Stephanie Munson, 17 in 1999.

Stephanie had just started attending Columbine four months prior to the shootings. She and her friend Melissa Walker were heading out of tech lab class to go talk with one of the A.C.E. teachers when she heard popping noises. She had never heard gunfire before so didn't recognize the sound. About that time a male teacher ran up behind them, yelling at them to get out of the building. She and Melissa ran west toward the main entrance. As they were exiting through the first set of double doors Stephanie felt as though her left foot exploded. There was a burning sensation and a pop, then her foot went numb.

Once outside the school, Stephanie paused by the bike rack to look at her foot and saw that it was bleeding. Melissa, hysterical, insisted that she keep running. It wasn't until Steph got across the street to Leawood Park that she was able to stop and take off her shoe and sock. That's when she discovered that she'd been shot. There were several people already in the park at the time and more were pouring out of the school by the minute. Seeing her wounded ankle, which was a through-and-through injury from a 9mm bullet, someone with a cellphone called 911 . An ambulance arrived and took her to the hospital where she was treated and released April 20, 1999.

Steph and her younger sister Jennifer designed a commemorative Columbine stuffed bear, made available shortly after the shootings to raise money for other victims. One of the bears was put inside the shuttle Endeavor for an 11-day mission before it was presented back to Stephanie.

They may not be available any longer but for more information about the bears, you can try writing to the old mailing address:



There has been some confusion out there about who was on the May 3,1999 cover of Newsweek (Massacre in Colorado Special Report - Why?). For reasons unknown, a rumor began that Stephanie Munson was the blonde seen in the middle. This photo has been used by conspiracy theorists who wanted to push the idea that the shooting was a hoax. There was no blood, they said, so it had to be a hoax. Except... the photo wasn't of Munson. The girl in the photo is Jessica Holliday, with Diwata Perez on her left. There is another famous photo of Perez and Holliday that was used by many news agencies to summarize the suffering of those who were there. There are no known photos of Stephanie taken on the day of the shooting.

Patricia "Patti" Nielson, 35 in 1999.

Patti Nielson, a substitute art teacher, was on hall monitor duty when she heard a commotion outside the west entrance of Columbine. Going to investigate, she asked one of the students in the hall, [Brian Anderson], what was going on. He recognized Harris from Audio/Video class and told her he thought teen was probably doing a project for the class, that the weapon was probably a prop cap gun. Later Nielson overheard [Brian] telling another teacher the student's name was Eric Harris and Brian knew he was in the video production class.

Nielson didn't think it was appropriate to have a gun in the school, pretend or not, and went to confront the student. She had just passed through the first set of double doors into the vestibule when [Eric Harris] saw her. He smiled and fired the gun at her. He missed, hitting the glass doors behind her. Nielson and [Brian] were hit with broken glass and burning hot shrapnel. Screaming "Dear God! Dear God! Dear God!" in terror, Nielson scrambled back into the school along with the students who were with her, toward the library.

Once in the library Patti Nielson ran to the phone at the circulation desk and dialed 911. While she was on the phone, teachers Peggy Dodd and Rich Long told everyone to get down under their desks or evacuate the room if they were close enough to the exit. Patti could hear the shooters getting closer and kept hollering at the students to get down under the tables. She remained on the phone with the 911 dispatcher (see transcripts and hear a portion of this call) as long as she could, but when the shooters entered the library, she left the phone receiver on the floor and crawled far under the librarian's desk.

She saw the shooters walk past and could see they were both wearing black military-style pants. At one point she heard what she thought was a student trying to stand up to them. She heard [John Tomlin] say: "That's enough!" or something to that effect. At some point she also heard one of the gunmen say: "What do we have here?" She heard them use the racial slur "nigger" and then heard them shoot someone. She also overheard them call someone "fat boy" and heard one of the girls cry out "Oh God!" and then heard one of the gunmen ask her if she believed in God. More gunfire soon followed. After that she heard one of them say: "Let's go down to the commons." The shooters went to leave but one of them [Dylan] paused near the circulation desk, saying: "Wait. There's one more thing I've always wanted to do!". Then he smashed a chair on top of the desk.

After the noise stopped entirely she crawled out from under the desk to the librarian's workroom. She saw two other women, Lois Keane and Carol Weld, hiding in the Rebel News Network studio, a small room off the main workroom. Nielson crawled inside a cupboard in the kitchen/workroom and shut the doors. She remained there for approximately three hours. While she was in the cupboard, she heard more gunfire from the library. She heard the gunmen say they were going to blow the library up but she couldn't bring herself to leave the cupboard for fear of getting shot. Eventually Keane opened the cupboard and told Nielson they needed to leave. They were able to escape the school at that point, escorted by SWAT members. She ran south to Pierce St. where she was treated for her injuries, including a grazing wound to the shoulder from a bullet. She was then taken to the hospital where she was treated and released April 20, 1999.

Jennifer Doyle, 17 in 1999.

Jennifer didn't know Eric Harris before the shootings but had met Dylan Klebold: They had attended elementary school together at Governor's Ranch Elementary and both had been in the CHIPS gifted program there.

After lunch Jenny went to the library. She sat at a table where Mark Kintgen was already seated. When investigators asked her who else was in the library at the time, she said Val Schnurr, Lisa Kreutz, Lauren Townsend, and Jeanna Park were there. She would have sat with them, but there was no more room at the table. She was sitting at her table when [Patti Nielson] and [Brian Anderson] entered the room. Nielson hollered for everyone to get down. Jenny could see Brian was injured and took the command seriously. She was going to get under the table she shared with Mark but, concerned it wasn't big enough to hide her, she ran to a table toward the back of the library where she hid with Austin Eubanks and Corey DePooter. Corey told her and Austin that everything was going to be all right, to encourage and calm them.

At one point she heard one of the gunmen ask someone nearby to identify themselves, and the person he was addressing answered: "John Savage." The shooter then said: "Oh, we know you." The shooters then told the boy to leave the library before they blew it up.

Suddenly one of the gunmen pulled a chair out from under the table where she was hiding. She saw the shooters and she saw Dylan Klebold holding a shotgun. He had another gun on a strap hanging at his hip. She later picked the hip-mounted gun out in a line of silhouettes: A Tec-9.

Jennifer had her hand on Corey's shoulder when Dylan opened fire and she started screaming. She realized she should probably stop and when she did, she felt a "pins and needles" sensation in her right hand. She could hear both gunmen laughing. She put her head down on Corey's back, facing away from the gunmen so she could keep her eyes open while playing dead - she didn't want them to see her looking around. She saw blood on her hand and wrapped the end of Corey's shirt around it. There was blood flowing along Corey's left side. She heard one of the shooters say: "You know what else I've wanted to do?" and the other boy responded: "Yeah. Stab someone." Jenny lay very still then; she was afraid if she moved she would be stabbed.

When it seemed the shooters had left the library, she tried to say something to Austin, but he shushed her. The two of them said nothing more for a while. Finally Austin tapped her and said, "We've got to get out of here."

They backed out from under the table and fled the school. Jenny ran to a police car which was positioned 20 to 30 feet away where she saw some male students removing their shirts to use as makeshift bandages to help the wounded. After a while of waiting more police cruisers showed up to evacuate the students who were hiding there with her. She was taken in the third car that came.

Jennifer was hit with three shotgun pellets in her right hand: One crushed her ring finger, another entered her wrist, and another entered the back of her hand, resulting in seven broken bones. Released from the hospital April 24, 1999. Jennifer now has a metal plate and screws holding her ring finger together. She graduated from Columbine High School on May 20, 2000 and went on to University of Colorado in the fall.

Daniel Steepleton, 17 in 1999.

Daniel had lunch fifth period and he spent it in the library where he met up with Makai Hall. He and Makai sat at a table with Corey DePooter, Patrick Ireland, and Austin Eubanks. They were there for about ten minutes before Daniel heard something that sounded like the librarian hammering something into the wall. He looked toward the circulation desk and about that time he heard a woman yell: "Get down! They have guns!". As he ducked under the table he glanced out the window and saw a group of people running from the school past the soccer field.

Daniel hid under the table with his friends and a dark-haired girl he didn't know [Kathy Park], he could hear the banging sounds getting closer and felt the floor shake. As the sounds intensified he heard a male voice yell something to the effect of: "This is for the four years of bullshit we had to put up with!". At one point he heard one of the gunmen ask someone "Do you believe in God?" and a female voice answer "Yes". He heard a gunshot afterward and people screaming. He told investigators he could hear a shotgun and an automatic weapon being fired at the same time.

Then he saw them over by the east end of the computer tables. He described them to investigators as "walking with a bounce, and appearing very happy". He described the first gunman as tall, white, wearing a long black coat, black boots, and a black hat on backwards. He had long hair and was carrying a shotgun. He had a royal blue backpack over one shoulder. Initially he told investigators he recognized the boy as a member of a group called the Trench Coat Mafia. He later told them he hadn't known the shooter before the attack but had learned from news reports that his name was Dylan Klebold. Daniel said he didn't have classes with any of the TCM and didn't know the rest of the group well enough to be able to identify them.

Daniel described the second gunman as a shorter white male who was wearing a long black coat and black boots. He told investigators it was his impression this shorter gunman was in charge of what was going on; that it appeared as though he took the lead and the taller one would follow him.

He heard the shorter gunman say: "The cops are outside." and both ran toward the west windows, lighting and throwing bombs as they went. They shot out the windows and fired on officers outside for a bit. Then the taller of the two announced: "All the jocks with white caps stand up." Dan, who was wearing a white hat, started to stand up. He told investigators he thought the gunmen had already seen him because the table had no chairs to hide behind. He didn't want the gunmen to shoot the other people hiding under the table but Makai restrained him, telling him: "Don't move." Daniel stayed where he was.

The fire alarm was going off and people became very quiet. He could hear the shooters laughing as they began shooting people again and threw more bombs. Daniel saw them return to the backpacks they'd set on a nearby table - he thought they might be reloading their weapons. He then saw Dylan look directly at him, smile, and then lift his sawed-off shotgun. He fired at Daniel, who was hit in the left knee. Daniel felt it as a sensation of warmth. He also saw that Makai had been hit in the right leg and it looked "torn up". Pat reached over to help Makai; Dan heard another shot and Pat dropped. He had been shot in the head. Both gunmen were firing their weapons at the time so Daniel wasn't sure who had shot Pat.

Dan fell to the floor where he played dead. A small bomb was thrown under their table and landed on Daniel's right upper thigh. The fuse was burning, but he was afraid to move. He didn't want the gunmen to shoot at the table again. Makai grabbed the bomb and threw it toward the south wall. It exploded midair with enough impact to shake the floor. Dan shut his eyes then and kept them closed.

It got quiet in the library. Dan could still hear bombs going off but they sounded further away, possibly in the cafeteria. He looked around and saw people getting up and moving toward the west door. Makai told him "Let's go." He, Makai, and the girl got up and left. Dan told investigators that he felt bad that he didn't help Patrick because he knew Pat was still alive when they got up to leave.

He was treated for a shotgun blast to the leg; he took five pellets to the knee and one to the chin. He was released before April 24, 1999. Daniel graduated Columbine on May 20, 2000. As of 2022, he was working with the Littleton Public Schools as an Aerospace teacher.