Police accounts show rampage ended before noon, not long after first shooting reports

By Lou Kilzer
and Steve Myers Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writers

The Columbine High School killers were dead for three hours before authorities stormed the library where they lay, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department said Wednesday.

The department's best estimate is that the shooting ended within 20 minutes of when it began at 11:21 a.m. April 20, sheriff's spokesman Troy Gardalen said.

"In my opinion, it was over within 12 minutes after I got there," said Deputy Paul Smoker, who was the second officer on the scene, arriving several minutes after the shooting began. He traded shots with one of the gunmen.

Smoker said shooting from inside the school ended after police fired en masse on the second floor of the library, where the killers had taken shots at rescue workers and police.

Police accounts put that shootout sometime before noon.

"It was quiet after that," Smoker said. "The only shots you heard was covering fire we put up for SWAT members and paramedics as they came in and out of the school."

Within an hour of the first reports of shooting, 50 officers were in the school, Denver Lt. Frank Conner said.

But clearing the building took much longer. Many students remained hidden inside, and teacher Dave Sanders lay mortally wounded.

Sheriff's spokesmen have said the caution was prudent. Officers did not know where the gunmen were or how many booby-trapped bombs they were facing.

They did not even know how many gunmen there were and believed an ambush might have been planned, he said.

"Realistically, we can't assume anything, because when you do, that's when people die. That's when you make mistakes," Conner said. "Just because there's no gunfire, that doesn't necessarily mean they've killed themselves. Doesn't necessarily mean the threat still isn't there."