School gunmen giggled as they shot, witnesses say
By Maureen Harrington
LITTLETON, Colo., April 20 (Reuters) - The young gunmen moved calmly through
the school library, giggling as they shot point blank at students cowering
under their desks.
Stunned teenagers at Littleton's Columbine High School described Tuesday's
attack as a horror movie come to life, fingering a group of school outcasts
known as ``the Trenchcoat Mafia'' as being likely suspects in a rampage which
cost as many as 25 lives.
Two heavily-armed gunmen, dressed in black trench coats and ski masks,
blasted their way through the large, suburban high school as students were
going to class or headed for lunch.
When it was over, the two gunmen lay dead in the library of what police
reported to be self-inflicted wounds.
Police said that initial sweeps of the building indicated that 23 other
students, teachers and school employees may have died in the bloody assault.
One female student, her arms spattered with the blood of her fellow students,
sobbed as she told KMGH television, ``He was shooting people right in front
of me. He was shooting people of colour and people who play sports.
``He put the gun right in my face and started laughing and said it was
because people were mean to him last year.''
Many witnesses said the gunmen appeared to have two particular targets --
minority students, and popular athletes.
A sophomore named Joshua Lapp said he was in the school library when the
gunmen approached. He ducked beneath his desk along with others in the room
when the shooters entered.
``They came in started shooting people underneath the desk. About half an
hour shooting, they decided to walk out,'' he told a reporter.
``They were going around, they were laughing about it,'' he said. ``They'd
shoot somebody, they'd laugh, they'd giggle ... you'd hear a shot go off,
you'd hear somebody yell and scream, another shot go off and they'd yell and
scream, another shot and there would be silence...''
Lapp was one of a number of students who said the gunmen's all-black outfits
resembled the black trenchcoats sported by the ``Trenchcoat Mafia,'' a group
of teenagers who favoured dark clothing and ``gothic''-style rock music.
``They were known as the Trenchcoat Mafia at our school and they got
ridiculed a little bit,'' Lapp said. ``We called them the Trench coat Mafia
because they wore black trenchhcoats every day to school. Everywhere,
anywhere, any day, no matter how hot it was they wore a black trench coat.''
He added that the social tensions between the school athletes, or ``jocks,''
and the ``Trench coat Mafia'' may have been one factor behind the attack.
``In matter of fact, when they first walked in they said if there are any
jocks in here, they're dead,'' he said. ``I was just lucky I wasn't wearing a
baseball hat today.''
The Denver Post, in a news story posted on its web site, quoted one senior
girl as saying the group of about a dozen juniors and seniors wore swastikas
on their clothes and liked to discuss Adolf Hitler -- whose birthday is April
20.
``They talk about Hitler a lot. They take a real pride in him. It's creepy,''
the girl, who asked to remain anonymous, told the newspaper's reporter.
She added that the ``Trenchcoat Mafia'' also liked to talk in class about
decapitating people, and that many often sang and quoted songs by
``shock''-rocker Marilyn Manson.
Other students at the school described chilling scenes on Tuesday as
explosions rocked part of the school and bullets went ricocheting off
lockers.
``I heard people pray for their husbands, their children, you name it,'' said
senior Nick Claus, who took refuge with several other students and school
workers in a bathroom.
``At this point, these guys were killing just to kill. They didn't care,''
Claus told reporters.
``They just started shooting. Anybody who was walking, talking they just
shot. That was the sick part about it ... all I saw was big black trenchcoats
and guns, man, and bombs.''
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