Thousands Embrace in Pledge to Mend Hearts

Under a cold, rainy sky, a crowd estimated at 70,000--including students, adults, teachers and community leaders--remembered the 13 killed at Columbine High School and prayed that their tragedy will bring an end to the nation’s growing number of school shootings.

The memorial service at a suburban strip mall for those killed at the local high school here began with an original song from two teenage brothers, who sang “Columbine, Friend of Mine,” and ended with thousands in one another’s arms pledging to mend hearts and rebuild the school.

Into the air rose hundreds of blue balloons across the silver sky--the two colors of the school where a pair of students on Tuesday killed a dozen of their own and a popular teacher, then turned their weapons on themselves in one final act of rage in the campus library.

As horrifying as those moments were, as heartbreaking as it has been for parents and classmates to start burying their loved ones, this pained community’s message on Sunday searched ahead for a brighter day.

“In the midst of this confusion I find my heart turning again and again to a Scripture passage that reads, ‘Love is stronger than death,’ ” said Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput.

“And I believe that love is stronger than death. Perhaps after all of this, something good will begin.”

Jane Hammond, superintendent of the Jefferson County School District, on whose shoulders the school rebuilding effort will fall, said all of Littleton should make that effort a sign to the nation that the increasing incidents of school violence must end.

“We grieve, we take time to cry, we hug each other and begin to heal,” she said.

“As we move through this, I hope that we have learned that our society finally sees enough is enough. I hope that our students, our parents, our community members, our elected officials, our community leaders come together and do all that we can do so this never happens again.”

Added Vice President Al Gore, quoting Psalms: “It may be darkness now, ‘but joy cometh in the morning.’ ”

He challenged parents across America to more closely monitor their children.

“We have seen enough of violence in our schools,” he said. “We must replace a culture of violence and mayhem with one of values and meaning.

“It is too easy for a child to get a gun, and everywhere we look there are lessons on how to use one.

“If you are a parent, your children need your attention.”

Elsewhere, other government leaders suggested that the parents of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold may be held responsible in that the two youths had planned for a year to storm the school and apparently stored much of their arsenal at home.

“I think that perhaps charges will be filed and certainly should be filed” against the parents if the evidence warrants it, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, said investigators will review “what the parents knew or should have known.”

“It is important,” she added, “that we identify who is responsible for them having guns, what the parents knew or should have known, and take appropriate steps.”

The parents of the two youths, who have been interviewed by police and who have retained attorneys, have not spoken publicly about their sons or the massacre, except to issue brief statements of remorse for those killed and the two dozen injured.

Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, who is leading the investigation, said Sunday night on “Dateline NBC” that the youths’ diary suggests “they were talking about killing at least 500” people at the school. “They basically wanted to go down in flames.”

Dr. Christopher Colwell of Denver Health Medical Center, who found the gunmen’s bodies and pronounced them dead, told Reuters that each died of a single gunshot: one through the mouth into the brain and the other to the side of the head.

At the memorial service, 13 doves were sent aloft, one for each of the young gunmen’s victims. Local florists donated 25,000 bouquets. Students and adults huddled in embraces; some formed impromptu prayer circles. Burly police SWAT team members carried rose petals.

Above them, fighter jets flew in a missing-man formation, the lead plane piloted by a Columbine High graduate.

For the students, this was their final salute to their Columbine friends; on Thursday they will begin half-day classes at nearby Chatfield High School to finish the academic year.

“We can rise up, and we can say no more,” Gore told the crowd, and even before he got to his last line, many in the crowd, mostly students, began making their way in the rain toward the giant Clement Park and the roped-off school nearby.

Teens climbed into trees around Columbine High, and there they placed teddy bears. At the park, which has become the site of a makeshift memorial of cards, flowers, ribbons and other memorabilia that grows daily, Gore and his wife laid flowers.

In the crowd, Josh Brinkley, a 16-year-old cross-country runner who was in the cafeteria where Harris and Klebold had left a large propane-tank bomb, said: “It helped to be with everybody.”

Shawn Sonnkalb, 20, who graduated from Columbine last year, drove here from Ft. Collins, where he attends Colorado State University. “But I knew all the kids. I knew their faces,” he said.

Michelle Ramsey wore a T-shirt that said, “Stop the hate.” Some people held signs blasting the National Rifle Assn.

Jimmy Doyle, 6, turned to his mother and asked: “Where are all the bodies, Mom?” She whispered that they are all in heaven.

On the stage during the service, Heather Dinkel, the school’s student body president, vowed that “despite the tragedy that occurred, the Columbine family refuses to lose its spirit.

“We must move forward.”

Everyone is a hero, she said. She meant William “Dave” Sanders, a coach and teacher there for 25 years, who died after being wounded while helping students get out of the school safely. She meant the teenagers who tore off their shirts and tried to stop his bleeding. She meant the youth who desperately telephoned his father from inside the school and asked how to save the coach’s life.

“Do you know a hero?” Heather asked. “Tell them. Then tell everyone.

“Because we want everyone to look at our school and see what we already know. Everyone is a hero.”

Next to her stood Amber Burgess, whose mother was a member of the school’s inaugural Class of 1972.

Her fist raised, her voice booming, Amber led the crowd in the school fight chant. Their voices grew louder with each stanza, and then as one they roared above the sound of the rain:

“We are!

“We ARE!

“WE ARE!

“COLUMBINE!”

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Staff writer Julie Cart and Times wire services contributed to this report.

Video excerpts of Sunday’s memorial service for the Columbine High School shooting victims is available on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/shootings