Columbine updates | 2007
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Eight Years...
February 13, 2007 -- Sulejmen Talovic, an 18 year old Bosnian refugee who lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, went to Trolley Square shopping mall with a shotgun and a handgun, along with several rounds of ammunition. Once there he gunned down victims seemingly randomly, without emotion.
April 9, 2007 -- A judge ordered that the statements made by the Klebolds and Harrises to the police after the Columbine shootings were to be sealed for 20 years.
March 1, 2007 -- A bomb threat was called in to Columbine High School. The school was evacuated and students were sent home for the day. Classes resume the next day.
April 16, 2007 -- Lone gunman Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old English male from South Korea, went on a
shooting spree at Virginia Tech college in Blacksburg, Virginia. He killed 32 people and injured 25 others before taking his own life, making it the deadliest school shooting in US history. A student who lived on campus in one of the dormitories, he was described by those who knew him as a "loner". Officials described his method of shooting as 'brutal' and 'thorough' - nearly everyone he injured or killed took at least three shots. In one classroom he attacked, only 4 of 25 students were able to walk out unassisted after the killing spree ended. On home-made videos he made shortly before the shootings, Cho Seung-Hui mentioned becoming a martyr "like Eric and Dylan". The videos were eerily similar to that of the Columbine shooters in their own videos, right down to the backward baseball cap and posturing with weapons in front of a blank, white brick wall.
September 21, 2007 -- The
Columbine Memorial is finished. The project's committee organized a dedication ceremony in Clement Park.
November 7, 2007 -- Armed with a .22 caliber handgun, Pekka Eric Auvinen went on a one-man assault at
Joleka High School in Tuusula, Finland. He killed seven students (five boys, two girls) and the headmistress (principal) of the school and injured at least 12 others before turning his weapon on himself. He survived the shot to the head, though was in "seriously critical condition".
Auvinen was a member of the local gun club and had been licensed to carry a gun just one month prior to the attack. Hours before he assaulted the school, a video appeared Wednesday on YouTube called "Joleka High School Massacre - 11/7/2007". The owner of the profile, Sturmgeist89 (meaning Storm Spirit in German), was listed as an 18-year-old male from Finland. This profile was later identified as belonging to Auvinen. The video he made was set to the KMFDM song "Stray Bullet".