Columbine victims | Injured 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Information about and experiences of
Columbine survivors who were injured during the high school shooting. Where possible, updates have been provided. Names contained within brackets [ ] indicate the victim didn't know the person but subsequent investigation has provided the identity of the individual.
Yearbook photos are used per Section 107 of the Fair Use Act.
Makai Hall, 17 in 1999.
Makai was sitting with his friends in the library when the shooting began. He hid under a table with
Daniel Steepleton and
Patrick Ireland when the shooters entered the library. When they demanded that everyone with white hats stand up, Dan - who was wearing a white hat - started to get up. Makai held him back, telling him: "Don't move."
Shortly after
Dylan Klebold looked under the table where Makai and his friends were hiding. Smiling, the shooter pulled his trigger. Makai was hit in the knee by the shotgun blast. Pat moved to help him and was shot in the head. Pat was knocked unconscious; Makai and Dan played dead. Then Eric Harris threw a home-made C02 bomb that bounced under their table and landed on Dan's thigh. Dan was too afraid to move so Makai reached over, grabbed it, and threw it back out. It exploded mid-air.
Three days after the tragic event he was
interviewed by CNN. He was quite modest when asked to discuss his act of heroism. He said that he knew Dylan from French class the previous year. They had worked on some class projects together. He never made eye contact with Dylan during the shootings.
"I thought he was an all right guy," Makai said. "Decent, real smart. He wasn't the kind of person he's being portrayed as. He was a nice guy, never treated me bad."
He was treated for a shotgun wound to the right knee and shrapnel in the cheek. Underwent surgery and spent 3 days in the hospital. He was released April 23, 1999. He graduated Columbine May 20, 2000.
In 2019, Makai Hall was interviewed by Rocky Mountain PBS for their documentary film,
Ripples of Columbine. “I was very depressed, very angry,” he told RMPBS. “I couldn’t get over the fact that I had gone through something and I felt like the world owed me something.”
As of 2019, Makai was working as a nurse at UCHealth. He was inspired to enter the healthcare field because of all the hospital visits he had to make when he was recovering. He is married and has three kids.
^ top
Patrick Ireland, 17 in 1999.
Patrick was in the library at the time of the attack, and was shot in the head. Because of this, his initial reports to investigators were a bit confused: During the ambulance ride to the hospital he told officers that the gunmen wore masks. He also told them that he was in the emergency room when he was shot. He couldn't remember who he had been talking to or what he was doing when he was shot.
Officials interviewed him again nearly a month later and he was able to relate more about what had happened to him. Pat had gone to the library to finish some homework, as he usually did. He typically sat with friends there during "A" lunch and that day was no exception. He sat down at a table where
Corey DePooter and
Austin Eubanks were already seated. They were soon joined by
Daniel Steepleton and
Makai Hall.
A few minutes later Pat heard a teacher shouting that two kids had guns and that everybody needed to get down. He thought it was a joke at first but she kept telling them to get down and the fear in her voice convinced him she was serious. He ducked under the table with Makai and Dan; he didn't see where Austin and Corey went.
Then he heard the gunshots coming closer to the library. Soon the sounds were in the library. Pat put his head down and closed his eyes, held his breath and played dead. He heard one of the gunmen yell "Anybody with a white hat stand up!". Pat had been wearing a cap at that time but couldn't remember what it looked like or if he took it off after the gunman said that. He next heard the other one say "This is for all the shit you put us through." He heard gunfire but didn't open his eyes till the sound of it was quite close and he heard his friend Makai groaning in pain.
Looking over at Makai he saw blood flowing from the boy's right knee and more on Dan's foot. Pat moved between the two with the idea to provide first aid to Makai. He reached out to put his hand on Makai's wound to apply pressure and "blacked out": He had been shot twice in the head and again in the foot, though he had no memory of being shot.
Pat passed in and out of consciousness for two hours on the floor of the library. The fire alarm finally woke him. His ears were ringing and he heard someone coughing, a sound that eventually stopped and didn't start again.
"At that point I didn't know where I was shot. I didn't even think I was injured. And I was thinking, 'I gotta get out of here.' So, I tried to stand up. I couldn't stand up. And so, I slid across the floor on my back head-first, pushing with this [[his good]] leg. I couldn't see very well so I had to get out of there. When I got to the wall right next to the window, I rested for a little bit then finally decided to go ahead and try to get up and it took me two tries. My back was up against the wall, and I pushed with my leg and slid my back up against the wall, at that point I was standing and I kinda rolled over on my stomach... the window was broken already, so I tried to clear some of the glass."
- Patrick Ireland in a press interview
Pat wasn't feeling any pain at the time but knew he could only use his left arm left leg and he kept blacking out on his way to the window that the shooters had broken when they fired out at police. He was eventually able to pull himself up onto the ledge. He heard someone outside yelling at him to "stay". He was confused at the time but waited and a few moments later heard another voice yell to him that it was okay to jump. He leaned out the window. He has no memory of being caught by the SWAT team members who were waiting below. His next recollection was that of being treated by emergency workers.
If Pat had waited in the library for help he would likely have died. He was treated for two gunshot wounds to the head and one to the right foot as well as a laceration to his right inner elbow. He was later moved to Craig Hospital for spinal and cerebral rehabilitation. He returned to Columbine that fall, using a cane to help support his weight as he walked. On September 25, 1999 he was elected Columbine's homecoming king. He graduated from Columbine May 20, 2000 as a co-valedictorian. In
2004, Jefferson County reached a $117,500 settlement with Patrick Ireland. The sheriff's office assumed no liability in the settlement, successfully ending the last federal case against JeffCo.
In 2009 Pat was doing well for himself: He was working as a financial rep and had married sweetheart Kacie. By 2012, he had 2 daughters and moved up to managing director for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. That's when the Sandy Hook shooting happened. Still living with a bullet in his brain from the Columbine shooting, Pat
gave an interview about his feelings on the shooting.
Pat Ireland 2009
Pat's site at Northwestern Mutual
^ top
Michael Johnson, 15 in 1999.
Michael was outside the cafeteria with four friends: Denny Rowe,
Mark Taylor, John Cook, and Adam Thomas. They were sitting on the grass near the east stairs when the shooting began.
At first Michael didn't know what was going on but he quickly realized bullets were hitting the ground near him and and his friends. He felt a sensation like someone had poured warm water on his left leg and he and his friends got up to run toward a shed that was about 120 yards away. As they ran he heard Mark cry out: "Oh my God! I've been shot!" as he fell to the ground.
Mike continued to run. He felt another "warm feeling" on the back of his jaw and realized he'd been shot too. He managed to make it as far as the shed. Denny, John, and Adam kept running and jumped the nearby fence. Michael lay down and propped himself against the shed where noticed the left leg of his blue jeans was covered in blood from mid-thigh down to his ankle.
Michael remained there next to the shed for a while. At one point a teacher, Coach Lowery, came by and told him that he was going to get him some help. Soon after, Michael heard what he thought was a pipe bomb exploding then he lost consciousness for a bit. The next thing he knew, two students - Evan Todd and Ryan Barrett - were trying to help him. He was removed from the shed area by law enforcement who then transported him to paramedics.
When asked by investigators, Mike said he knew of
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold but never actually dealt either one of them before. He told investigators he thought they were members of the Trench Coat Mafia, but didn't really know anything about the group.
Michael was in intensive care for 8 days during which time doctors had to wire his jaw shut and repair a ruptured blood vessel in his leg. He was released April 28, 1999.
Though doctors thought he might lose his leg at one point, Mike can now run and has held a job at the Mann Theater. His parents Kathy and Gary felt that though they went through a lot, the ordeal made them closer as a family.
^ top
Kacey Ruegsegger, 17 in 1999.
Kacey was a junior at the time of the shootings. She was in the library reading when the shooting began. When the call went out for everyone to get down, Kacey hid under one of the small tables in the southern bank of computer tables, and pulled a chair in front of herself. One of the gunmen stood in front of where she was hiding and told everyone with a white hat to get up so he could shoot them. They then shot an acquaintance of hers,
Dan Steepleton. She also heard the gunmen make a racial slur to someone, something along the lines of: "Oh, a nigger. You're a dead black boy."
When they shot the boy who was hiding under the computer table next to her [later identified as
Steven Curnow], she put her head down and covered her ears with her hands. She was then shot in the shoulder and when she cried out, the gunman who shot him told her to "stop your bitching". She lay down then and pretended to be dead.
Kacey remained under the table after the person who shot her moved away and she continued to hear bangs, some of which she thought were bombs exploding. After the gunmen left the room, two students tried to help her get out: [Craig Scott] (brother to victim [
Rachel]), and a girl, [Amanda Stair]. Kacey was unable to move quickly and was trampled by other students who were in a rush to leave the area. She managed to make it out of the building and to the police waiting outside where she was rushed off to the triage area.
Just months before the shootings Kacey had transferred to Columbine after two of her friends committed suicide and another had died of leukemia. Her parents wanted her to be in a more positive environment.
She suffered multiple injuries including a gunshot wound to the right shoulder, a through-and-through injury to her right hand that medical officials pulled a metal washer out of, and a gunshot graze on her neck. They pulled a shotgun wad out of her shoulder. At the hospital she was given at least two doses of morphine and was still in quite a bit of pain. A steel plate was put in her arm and she went through lengthy physical therapy. She was released from the hospital on May 1, 1999.
She went on to attend Colorado State University and had hopes of being an American Quarter Horse Association chapter champion in Denver once more, like she was before the shootings. As of April 2006, Kacey is fully recovered and
happily married. She wrote a book,
Over My Shoulder : A Columbine Survivor's Story of Resilience, Hope, and a Life Reclaimed, which was published Mar. 22, 2019.
^ top