Los Angeles Times: Prosecutors Reject Columbine Probe

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-columbine-police0104jan03.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnation%2Dheadlines

Prosecutors Reject Columbine Probe
By STEVEN K. PAULSON
Associated Press Writer

January 3 2002, 5:51 PM PST

LITTLETON, Colo. -- Federal and county prosecutors Thursday refused to convene a
grand jury to look into allegations that a police officer accidentally killed a
student during the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Within hours, Gov. Bill Owens urged prosecutors to reconsider.

"A grand jury investigation may be helpful in resolving the continuing
controversies surrounding Columbine," he said in a statement.

U.S. Attorney John Suthers said no one had formally requested a federal
investigation and no federal crimes have been alleged.

"You have to believe there was criminal conduct to convene a grand jury. We have
no reason to believe there was anything criminal that took place during the
investigation," said Pam Russell, spokeswoman for Jefferson County District
Attorney Dave Thomas.

The parents of some of the slain Columbine students have said they have proof
that an officer accidentally shot student Daniel Rohrbough and that authorities
tried to conceal it.

During a news conference Wednesday, the student's father, Brian Rohrbough,
played a tape recording of a voice he identified as Arapahoe County sheriff's
Deputy Jim Taylor describing his son's shooting. The man on the tape says he was
dispatched to Columbine when gunfire broke out.

"I'm right there and I see this through my window ... You could hear glass
breaking, you could see kids running everywhere, and that's when I see the boy
coming down the sidewalk, you know, and I see him just fall down," the man says.
The man says he recognized the boy as Rohrbough's son through a photo in a
newspaper the next day.

The recording was made without Taylor's knowledge 11 months after the shootings
during dinner with Daniel Rohrbough's mother, Sue Petrone, and her husband, a
longtime friend of Taylor's, Brian Rohrbough said.

In a statement taken by the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office on Monday, Taylor
said the only thing he told the Petrones was what he had seen on television and
read in newspapers. Taylor did not return calls left with the sheriff's office
seeking comment.

-- continued --

Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan said he was disturbed by the apparent
contradictions and had asked to meet with Rohrbough.

According to authorities, Columbine students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris
killed 12 students and a teacher during the April 20, 1999, attack before
committing suicide.
___

On the Net:

Columbine Commission report: [url]http://www.state.co.us/columbine[/url]
Copyright 2002 Associated Press

I wish those folks would just lay this thing to rest. No doubt they're hurting when they've lost a kid, I understand that. But it like a major accident on the interstate, other than the killers, everything else was an "accident". No doubt the cops screwed up badly at times but it wasn't intentional. They should bury their dead, grieve and go on with their lives.

gib,

You don't know what you are talking about.

[url]http://insidedenver.com/drmn/columbine/article/0,1299,DRMN_106_929369,00.html[/url]

Students there when Rohrbough shot

Witness statements point to Klebold, Harris as killers

By Hector Gutierrez, News Staff Writer

Three Columbine students who gave original witness statements to authorities strongly indicate that it was killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who shot and killed Daniel Rohrbough.

The students, Sean Graves, Lance Kirklin and Mark William Opfer, told investigators several days after the April 20, 1999, massacre they were standing near Rohrbough, 15, when he was gunned down outside the school. Kirklin and Graves also were seriously wounded during the attack.

Although their accounts had minor discrepancies, the three students said it was Klebold and Harris, clad in black trench coats, who spotted them outside and then opened fire on them.

Brian Rohrbough, Daniel's father, has argued that the youngsters were undergoing a horrific trauma and that their recollection of events may not be reliable.

Opfer told the FBI he was walking next to Rohrbough and going to the library on the outside staircase, northwest of the cafeteria, when he saw two men at the top of the stairs wearing trench coats. He described one as standing about 6 feet, 4 inches, and the other about 5 feet, 8 inches.

Klebold was the taller of the two killers.

"The shorter person began firing the pistol down the stairs," documents quote Opfer as saying. Included in the narrative: "Opfer turned to speak to Rohrbough, who then looked at him strangely and fell down screaming. Opfer realized Rohrbough had been shot, so he ran down the stairs and into the southwest entrance to the cafeteria. . ."

Opfer escaped unharmed.

He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Kirklin and Graves told investigators they were with Rohrbough and other students in the cafeteria when the three decided to go outside and walk up the hill.

According to Graves, he told investigators he saw the killers standing "side by side at the top near the corner of the library."

"The short guy was on my right," Graves told investigators. "They pointed their guns at us. The tall one shot first, at Dan and he (Dan) yelled. Dan slipped and fell and I can not remember what happened to Dan after that. . ."

Mike Graves, Sean's father, said Thursday his son and family plan to cooperate fully with investigators from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, which is conducting an independent probe of whether Denver police Sgt. Daniel O'Shea killed Rohrbough.

However, Mike Graves said, "Sean's statements appear to indicate it was one of the (assailants who shot Rohrbough.)

An investigator's interview with Kirklin stated that "at the very top of the stairs he observed an individual in dark clothes, silhouetted by the daylight, at which time he observed the gunman turn and point the gun in their direction, at which time Rohrbough began to fall, at which time he (Kirklin) attempted to catch him and felt himself being shot."

Kirklin couldn't be reached Thursday for comment.

January 4, 2002

This appears to be a more accurate statement of what Sullivan said:


But Arapahoe County officials now say Taylor's comments to the Rohrbough family reflect only what he had seen on television or in newspapers.

Nevertheless, Sullivan is anxious to hear the Rohrbough family's tape that purports to catch Taylor in a flat contradiction of his official statement.

"It's obviously pretty informative, there's no doubt about that," Sullivan said, referring to those portions of the tape that have appeared in the media.

[b]"But I want to know the whole context of what was going on. We need to hear the whole thing."[/b]


And Rohrbough doesn't want to give the whole tape to Sullivan until "certain conditions have been met".

The whole article can be read at [url]http://insidedenver.com/drmn/columbine/article/0,1299,DRMN_106_929378,00.html[/url]

Jay
Arizona

Unfortunately, there are too many "bad shoots" of citizens by police...and Columbine was a ClusterF#@$ from the start.

Cowardly cops who refused to enter the building...parents wanted to go in and fight the bad guys...and the cops hid out doing basically nothing...bad press, bad example, no excuse.

Even if people got a grand jury to look at things, you would still have a large group that would just yell "cover-up".  After WACO's wonderful review and cover-up, O.J.'s disaster, and all the recent accidental shootings (woman shot in Texas when the police woman's Glock went off by itself, man who's land was wanted by feds get's perforated, Randy Weaver's son).

The police sucked in Columbine, they should have a grand jury look into the whole disaster, but I don't believe the resulting verdicts will change anything.  Pity.

I'd think this would be easy enough to disprove..unless the officer and the kids were using the same ammo, and unless the fatal wound was a through and through..compare the rounds in the kids body to who was shooting what ammo. I would assume that this had already been done.

It was done:
Nothing conclusive from ballistics.

Three witnesses'; two of who were also shot by the bad guys, are good enough for me.

It's in the final report.

Jay
Arizona

Gov. Bill Owens calling for a Grand Jury investigation!  Wonder why that is???!!!

DaMan  

Seems there are some BLATENT ERRORS in the "final report"!

Gov. Bill Owens calling for a Grand Jury investigation! What do you have to say about THAT, Jay?

DaMan

A request coming from the man who promised to give the people who voted him into office their 2nd amendment rights back, and then became a spineless coward when it came time to actually fulfilling that promise means nothing to me, but apparently does not bother someone like you.

I suppose that Owens thinks the three kids who say the gunman killed Rohrbough are lying:
Sounds like you do to.

I'll let you in on a little secret daman:

It was actually Lee Harvey Oswald, with Darryl Gates and Richard Nixon at his side, who actually killed Rohrbough, and the other kids at the school.

Now that's something I think you can believe.

Jay
Arizona

Stick to decaf, Jay!  You're starting to sound quite bizarre!

SO Owens is in on the muckraking?

Man, you are out of it!

DaMan

Thanks for the advice daman.

You're daman.

Jay
Arizona

I would bury my dead and when every question surrounding that death was answered I would attempt to go on with my life.

From the distorted information available to the public, it does not appear this was one of "policing's" finest hours.

The truth should be neither feared nor avoided.

Yes, Jay And you're NOT! [:P]

DaMan

[:)]

Jay [B)]
Arizona