Vigil to Honor Victims of Columbine Shooting

12 students and a teacher were killed 25 years ago
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 19, 2024 2:52 PM CDT
Vigil to Mark 25 Years Since Columbine Mass Shooting
In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, people visit the Columbine Memorial on Wednesday in Littleton, Colo.   (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

The 12 students and one teacher killed in the Columbine High School shooting will be remembered Friday in a vigil on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the attack. The gathering, set up by gun safety and other organizations, is the main public event marking the anniversary, which is more subdued than in previous milestone years, the AP reports. Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who began campaigning for gun safety after she was nearly killed in a mass shooting, will be among those speaking. So will Nathan Hochhalter, whose sister Anne Marie was paralyzed after she was shot at Columbine. Several months after the shooting, their mother, Carla Hochhalter, took her own life.

The organizers of the vigil, which will also honor all those affected by the shooting, include Colorado Ceasefire, Brady United Against Gun Violence, and Colorado Faith Communities United Against Gun Violence, but they say it will not be a political event. The organizer is Tom Mauser, who is on Colorado Ceasefire's board. His son Daniel, a sophomore who excelled in math and science, was killed at Columbine, decided to set up the vigil after learning school officials did not plan a large community event like the one on the 20th anniversary.

Those killed included Dave Sanders, a teacher shot as he shepherded students to safety. He lay bleeding in a classroom for almost four hours before authorities reached him. The students killed included one who wanted to be a music executive like his father, a senior and captain of the girls varsity volleyball team, and a teenager who enjoyed driving off-road in his beat-up pickup. Sam Cole, another Colorado Ceasefire board member, said the students killed would now be adults in the prime of their lives with families of their own. "It's just sad to think that they are always going to be etched in our mind as teenagers," he said.

(More Columbine school shooting stories.)

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