Killers_ The Most Barbaric Murderers of Our Time - Cawthorne, Nigel [117]
The triage point at Caley and Yukon began dispatching the wounded to hospital by ambulance and helicopter. Bomb squads from Jefferson County, Denver and Arapahoe County were soon supplemented by bomb experts from Littleton Fire Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They began examining the diversionary device found at Wadsworth and Chatfield, while others were sent to the homes of the suspects.
At the command post on Pierce, there was a report that a gunman and hostages were at the front door of the school. Moments later a lone student came out of the main door and ran to the fire truck. The teenager was quickly checked for weapons. It was soon ascertained that he was not one of the gunmen.
On board Channel Seven’s news helicopter Sergeant Phil Domenico conducted a survey of the school’s roof. Meanwhile extra staff were called into Jefferson County Sheriff’s office which was now inundated with calls from the world’s media. Parents and students were gathered at Columbine Public Library and Leawood Elementary School, where counselling was provided.
An officer from the Salvation Army called in a mobile kitchen, which was set up near the command post. Then the Red Cross moved into Clement Park to provide food and water for the media, students and their families.
At 12.17, a young man wearing a white shirt and black pants and carrying a .22 rifle and a knife was see walking along the west side of the school. He was arrested at gunpoint. The rifle was found not to be loaded. The young man said he had heard of the shooting on the TV and came to ‘help the police’.
At 12.20, a student being interviewed on TV said that the gunmen shot one of his friends. He said that there were two or three gunmen and they were armed with automatic weapons, sawn-off shotguns and pipe bombs. He did not know their names but said they were part of Columbine’s ‘Trench Coat Mafia’.
The Trench Coat Mafia was a loose association of disaffected youths who complained that they were harassed by the school’s athletes – the ‘jocks’. There were some 21 members. Some worked at Blackjack Pizza with Harris and Klebold. Others knew them from school. They identified themselves by wearing black trench coats or dusters. In the senior class photograph of 1999 several members – including Harris and Klebold – posed as if pointing weapons at the camera. Some had actually seen the pipe bombs and CO2 cartridge devices Harris and Klebold had made, but none of them knew that they were planning the Columbine killings.
By 12.35 Manwaring’s S.W.A.T. team was at the back entrance of the school on west side’s upper level. Their first objective was to rescue two students lying in front of the west doors. The fire truck inched up to the west doors and two Denver S.W.A.T. members grabbed Richard Castaldo. They laid him on the bumper of the fire truck, then Deputy Taborsky transferred him to his patrol car and rushed off to seek medical assistance. Next the S.W.A.T. team tried to retrieve the bodies of Rachel Scott and Daniel Rohrbough. The situation remained chaotic as, at this point, no one knew the gunmen were dead. Students inside the school continued calling 911, their parents and the media with reports of hostage taking, explosions and as many as eight roaming gunmen as well as the sound of gunshots coming from the auditorium, the gymnasium, the music rooms, the science block, the business wing and the school’s offices. The firing they heard probably came from S.W.A.T. team during their rescue of Richard Castaldo at the school’s upper west entrance. Meanwhile other schools in the area were ‘locked down’ with no one being allowed to enter or leave.
Manwaring’s S.W.A.T. team then asked for a floor plan of the school. Soon after another ten-man S.W.A.T. team from Jefferson County,