In Memoriam: John Robert Tomlin

From aColumbineSite:

Born September 1, 1982

16 years old

John Tomlin was a sophomore at Columbine when he was killed in the library. A native of Wisconsin, his family moved to Littleton in 1995 when his father, John Michael, got a job there with a heating firm. John found the move difficult at first. He was shy and lonely. But he soon made friends with Jacob Youngblood and Brandon Sokol, both of whom later spoke at his funeral.

John attended the Foothills Bible Church and belonged to the Riverside Baptist Church South youth group where he met his girlfriend of seven months, Michelle Oetter. His sister Ashley said the pair were nearly inseperable.

"He treated me like the queen of the world," Michelle said of John.

He loved church and Chevrolet trucks. He had recently got his driver's license and had just bought an old Chevy pickup that he had been working for since he was 14. He enjoyed off-roading Rocky Mountains. He once drove all the way to Mexico to help build a house for a poor family. He enjoyed four-wheeling in his truck and lifting weights.

He was gentle and kind. Family and friends remember his energy and the warmth of his smile. "He had such a sense of humor. He was always making goofy faces," his mother said.

He worked after school and on weekends at Arapahoe Acres Nursery hauling trees and driving tractors 30 hours a week. According to friends, he always wore the same thing to work: Carpenter pants, mud-caked boots, a blue cap, and a jacket featuring his favorite team, the Green Bay Packers. He planned to join the army when he graduated.

His truck, like Rachel Scott's car, became a standing memorial in the parking lot. Thursday following the shootings, his family gathered around the truck despite the fact that it was raining. His bible was still sitting on the dashboard, where he always left it in the hope that someone would see something there that would bring them closer to God. His grandfather, John Francis, his father, and other family members took turns sitting in the truck.

"He was as close to a perfect son as you could get," his father, John Michael Tomlin, said. "He was just good. You'd ask him to wash a car, and he'd wash both cars."

John spent his lunch hour in the library every day, studying. He was there when the gunmen stormed the school. Hiding under a table, he welcomed a girl he didn't know (victim Nicole Nowlen) into his hiding place when she grew scared where she was hiding. He held her hand to comfort her when the killers started shooting people in the library. When he heard Dylan Klebold harassing Valeen Schnurr after she'd been shot, John confronted the gunman. Eric Harris opened fire on John and Nicole, injuring them both with blasts from his shotgun. Then Klebold came around the table and shot John at point-blank range in the head, killing him almost instantly.

The first of the funerals for the victims killed at Columbine, his was held at Foothills Bible Church where he had attended church. He was buried in his hometown of Waterford, Wisconsin, in Saint Peters Cemetery. He was buried in a satin-lined coffin of green and gold, the colors of his favorite team, embroidered with Chevy trucks.

In Memoriam: Steven Robert Curnow

From aColumbineSite:

Born August 28, 1984

14 years old

Steve Curnow was a freshman at Columbine who dreamed of being a Navy top gun pilot and was very close with his mom Susan and father Robert (Bob) despite the fact that they were divorced. Weeks before the shooting, he told his father that he forgave him for the mistakes made that led to the breakup. Steve loved soccer. When he discovered his soccer skills weren't strong enough to make the team at Columbine, he continued to referee part-time and play on the team dad Bob coached, the Colorado Rush. Steve liked the color green, because it was the color of the field.

His favorite classes were Spanish, technology, and gym because he got to play sports. He dreamed of becoming an aviator after discovering the joy of flight during a family vacation to England.

Remembered as a huge fan of the Star Wars series, he watched the films so many times, he could recite the dialogue along with the actors. Science fiction fans nationwide put together a "Go to Star Wars" memorial day in his honor when Star Wars I: the Phantom Menace premiered in theaters May 19th, 1999. He had been anxiously awaiting its release.

Steve was hiding under one of the small computer tables in the library, near surviving victim Kacey Ruegsegger, when the shooting began. Eric Harris shot Steve in neck with a sawed-off shotgun. Steve died in the library. At 14 years old, he was the youngest victim of the Columbine massacre.

His funeral was held at Trinity Christian Center, the fourth funeral of a Columbine victim held there in five days. Members of his soccer team were among the mourners at his funeral. "Every time we'd play, he'd have a huge smile on his face," Justin Norman said at the funeral, a former teammate who was among a dozen friends who offered eulogies for Steve.

His sister Nancy said at the funeral that she was going to miss fighting with Steve over whose turn it was to take out the garbage, and whose turn it was to use the computer. She wondered who would tell stories to her own children about what she was like growing up. She'd been counting on her little brother for that.

His mom wrote a note to Steve that was read at his funeral: "Thank you for that special moment two weeks ago when you said, 'Mom, I bet there aren't many guys who can discuss things with their moms like we do.'"

Steve was buried in Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

In Memoriam: Rachel Joy Scott

 From aColumbineSite:

Born August 5, 1981

17 years old

Rachel Scott was a vibrant and straight-forward individual. A junior at Columbine, she wasn't afraid to stand up for what she believed in, no matter what. She played the lead in a student-written school play, The Smoke in the Room (co-starring friends Nick Baumgart, Lauren Beachem, and others), and was writing a play for her senior year. She also liked photography and was active in the Celebration Christian Fellowship church. She was "made for the camera," according to her father, Darrell, and was an aspiring writer and actress. "There's nothing I can add or take away from what she gave us," her mom, Beth Nimmo, said. "In those short 17 years, it was complete."

She quit smoking at the request of friend Nick Baumgart who later took her to the prom. If she hadn't quit, it's quite possible she would've been at "Smoker's Pit" during lunch instead of in the line of fire. As it was, she was eating lunch on the grass with friend Richard Castaldo when the shooters opened fire on the west entrance near where she was seated on the grass. According to witnesses, she was hit and fell to the ground where, moments later, one of the shooters (Eric Harris) came down the hill and shot her at point-blank range when she tried to get up. She died from gunshot wounds to the head, chest, arm and leg, and was one of the first victims of what would soon become one of the nation's most deadly mass shootings.

One of the shooters, Dylan Klebold, had known Rachel since kindergarten and had even been the sound tech for a talent show she performed in, in 1998. Ironically, when the sound broke down, it was Dylan who saved the performance by hooking up a reserve tape deck. Rachel had been performing a mime dance Watch the Lamb which portrayed Simon of Cyrene who carried Jesus' cross along part of the Via Dolorosa. That same mime dance was later performed behind her coffin during her funeral.

Rachel's family didn't know for certain that she was dead until Thursday when her name was on the list of confirmed deceased, but they all knew in their hearts that the worst was coming. Their prayers for her to turn up safely went unanswered during those long hours between the shootings and news of her death. Rachel had always been close with her brother Craig (who had been in the library during the shootings and miraculously survived uninjured despite being next to Isaiah Shoels and Matt Kechter were shot and killed) but had experienced difficulty connecting with her father. That last week before her death, Rachel and her dad had a long and bonding discussion, something that left both of them feeling incredibly happy. For Darrell that moment would later give him comfort when dealing with Rachel's death.

Throughout her life Rachel was an incredibly spiritual person who often wrote to God in her diaries about wanting to "reach the unreached". She begged Him for the chance to show others the way, to let her life have some purpose in spreading His word. In 1998 she drew a collage of images that included a rose growing up out of a columbine, with several dark drops spiralling it (you can see this picture on the video Untold Stories Of Columbine). On the morning of the shootings, she doodled a reprise of the picture: a pair of eyes crying thirteen teardrops onto that same rose -- the same number of victims the shooters would kill during the massacre just hours later.

After her death, Rachel's car was turned into a makeshift memorial by her friends where it sat in the parking lot. "In my eyes, she was just one of those kinds of people you know you won't ever meet again," Rachel's friend Lauren Beachem said of her. "She was the kind of person only born once."

Rachel was buried at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in the Columbine Memorial Garden in Littleton, Colorado.

In Memoriam: Isaiah Eamon Shoels

From aColumbineSite:

Born August 4, 1980

18 years old

Isaiah Shoels was a senior at Columbine. He wanted to be a comedian, dreamed of becoming a music executive. After graduating he wanted to attend an arts college. Friends nicknamed him "Bushwick". Born with a heart defect, his parents said he was a fighter who overcame his disability and went on to play football and wrestle. He had played cornerback the previous year on the football team but his father claimed he quit "possibly because of racial intimidation".

Isaiah also played keyboards and wanted to become a record producer, like his father Michael who was the president of Notorious Records and Ft. Knox Entertainment - a firm Michael started to promote black musicians in the Denver area. After graduation Isaiah had planned to attend the Denver Institute of the Arts.

Isaiah was a popular boy; Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis said his classmates would compete to work on school projects with him. "Isaiah Shoels, thank you for having such a positive impact on our school and on our family. You will be greatly missed, and I love you, my dear child," he said at Isaiah's funeral.

"He's smiling down on us," classmate and friend Nick Foss said. "I know he is."

Isaiah was in the library with his friends Matt Kechter and Craig Scott when the shooters entered the room. The three boys hid under the same table, listening to the sounds of the gunmen destroying the library and shooting other people. Isaiah was a well-known athlete and someone whom the shooters had problems with before. When Dylan Klebold saw him hiding beneath the table, he called Eric Harris over. They flanked the table on either side then Klebold made a racist comment toward Isaiah, and tried to pull him out from under the table. When that failed, Harris opened fire, killing Isaiah. Klebold then shot and killed Matt. Craig was amazingly left uninjured though he played dead, covered in the blood of his dying friends.

Isaiah died from a gunshot wound to the chest. Witness reports of the shooters' racist remarks led Isaiah's parents to later claim that the whole massacre was race-motivated, however Isaiah was the only black person killed during the shootings. In fact, no other black people were even injured during the assault.

His brother Anthony was a freshman at Columbine and was outside with a friend when the shooting started. He was able to get to safety by running through the school and out the other side.

The last of the Columbine victims to be buried, Isaiah was laid to rest in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado. Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at Isaiah's funeral at the Heritage Christian Center.

In Memoriam: Daniel Connor Mauser

From aColumbineSite:

Born June 25, 1983

15 years old

Daniel Mauser was a sophomore who excelled in math and science, and got straight 'A's on his last report card. His dad, Tom Mauser, remembered his son as a smart young man who wasn't afraid of challenges and who wasn't ashamed to hug his parents. He attended Ken Caryl Middle School, the same school the shooters went to, but there's no record of them knowing each other.

Daniel was shy but he didn't let that stop him from joining the debate team and though he wasn't a natural athlete, he still joined the cross-country team. He liked to ski, camp and recently returned from a two-week trip to Paris with the French club. He had received straight 'A's in his classes for the last two grading periods and won the "Stretch for Excellence" award for being named the top biology student of the Sophomore class at Columbine High School. Sadly, he died before he could learn that he'd been selected for that honor. Daniel was also posthumously accepted for membership into the National Honor Society in September of 1999. He had applied for membership weeks before the shootings.

Daniel is described by his family as a shy, gentle soul; lovable and loving. He was close friends with his sister Christine. Daniel liked pepperoni pizza, playing video and computer games, and watching shows like the Simpsons and the X-Files. Daniel was fond of trivia and knowledge games, as well as swimming and hiking. His father had hoped that in the summer of 1999 to take Daniel on his first 14,000 mountain hike.

Daniel volunteered at the Swedish Hospital and he was preparing for Confirmation in the Catholic Church. He would have been Confirmed at St. Frances Cabrini Church two weeks after the date of his death. His class put a plaque in the teen program room in Daniel's honor. Daniel was hoping to get his driver's license in 2000. He was concerned with gun safety in America -- just two weeks before he was killed Daniel had asked his father if he knew that there were loopholes in the Brady Bill. Tom Mauser was motivated by what he interpreted as a sign for action: Daniel was shot with a gun that was purchased through one of the very loopholes he had pointed out. Tom is now an active protester of the NRA and continues to campaign for stricter gun laws in the wake of his son's tragic death.

Daniel was in the library when he was shot in the face by Eric Harris while hiding under one of the tables. Daniel died under the table where he had hidden. His funeral was held jointly with Kelly Fleming's at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church. He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemeteryin Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Not long after the shootings, Daniel's family along with several other families of the shooting victims learned that the school district was planning to reopen the library where Daniel and the others had died. The plan was to make cosmetic changes such as removing the carpet, repainting, replacing bullet-riddled shelves. Upset by the notion, the Mausers along with several other parents and volunteers founded HOPE (Healing of People Everywhere) and together they convinced the district to tear out the old library and replace it.

Photos from:

http://www.acolumbinesite.com/victim/danm.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7036133/daniel-conner-mauser

In Memoriam: Kyle Albert Velasquez

From aColumbineSite:

Born May 5, 1982

16 years old

Neighbors and relatives say Kyle Velasquez enjoyed chores and family activities. They say he was a "gentle giant". A sophomore, he was six feet tall and 230 pounds when he died but those who knew him knew that he was a little boy at heart. Affectionate and sincere, he loved nothing more than helping his dad, Albert, out around the house: Putting up shelves, mowing the lawn, washing the car. Every day he would kiss his mom, Phyllis, on the cheek and tell her that he loved her. He dreamed of joining the Navy like his dad, or becoming a firefighter.

When Kyle was just a baby he suffered a stroke that left him mentally disabled and he also had severe asthma. As a "special needs" child, Kyle was often ignored, avoided, and teased while growing up -- he knew what it was like to be an outcast. Due to his disabilities, Kyle's parents had prepared to spend the rest of their lives with him. He would accompany his mother everywhere while she ran her errands. Kyle's last words to her were: "Goodbye. I love you, mom."

A shy teen, Kyle had only been attending Columbine for three months and was just beginning to come out of his shell when the massacre occurred. It was only a few weeks that he was staying at the school through lunch; a few weeks earlier and he would've been on his way home the day the shooting started. Kyle loved computers. He had been sitting at one of the computer tables in Columbine's library when the killers came in, perhaps too confused of frightened by the chaos and noise to hide himself. Dylan Klebold shot him in the back and the head. Kyle was the first victim to die in the library.

Kyle was buried with military honors in Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, since his father was a Navy veteran. His parents were given the flags from his coffin and the one that was flown at half-mast in Kyle's honor at the state Capitol.

A Quarter-century

 

In Memoriam: Corey Tyler DePooter

From aColumbineSite:

Born March 3, 1982

17 years old

Corey DePooter was a former wrestler who loved to hike, golf, hunt, and fish. He loved wrestling, golf and in-line skating, but fishing was his passion. He had recently taken a maintenance job at a golf club to save up to buy a fishing boat with a friend. Someone Corey used to fish with said: "It was the times we didn't do well that his personality really shined." Another friend said of him: "When you're going fishing or camping, I know he's going to be there, watching and making sure you're doing everything right.

A junior at Columbine at the time of the shootings, Corey is described as an all-American kid who put schoolwork above everything else: He had his wisdom teeth removed that year and was upset that the procedure had forced him to miss school. His sister Jena was a freshman at the high school when he died. He taught her how to fly-fish. Jena said she likes to imagine her brother doing something he loves.

Corey was hiding under a table near the windows with his best friend Stephen "Austin" Eubanks, Jennifer Doyle, and Peter Ball when the shooters entered the library. While his friend Austin watched, Dylan Klebold aimed his semi-automatic at Corey and pulled the trigger, killing him almost instantly and injuring Jenny and Austin.

Austin Eubanks later said about Corey: "People said he was the kind of guy people like to be around. I know I sure did. Corey was always able to pick our spirits up in a gloomy situation."

Though Austin survived, sadly he died from an accidental heroin overdose on May 18, 2019, just weeks after Columbine's 20th anniversary. He struggled with opioid for years after the shooting, having gotten hooked on painkillers while recovering from his injuries. Corey was never far from his thoughts in life; he spoke about him often when he was at public speaking events.

"Corey would have told us to move on," his mother Patricia told the Denver Post. "He would not like us moping around." But: "There are days you just cry and cry and cry."

Corey died in the library from multiple gunshot wounds to the neck, chest and left arm. His funeral was held at Trinity Christian Center. Soon after his death his grandmother, Fern Hamilton, contacted the Marine Corps about holding some sort of ceremony for Corey because he'd always wanted to become a Marine. On May 3, 2000, Corey was granted that dream during a ceremony at his gravesite in Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Littleton, Colorado, where he was made an honorary Marine.

Austin Eubanks and Corey DePooter