78 pages 2 hours read

Dave Cullen

Columbine

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

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Part 2, Chapters 20-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 20 Summary: “Vacant”

Hundreds of students gather at nearby Clement Park for a makeshift vigil the day after the shooting. Most know which students have been killed but there is still not unequivocal information, in this regard, at this time. Brian Rohrbough’s son, Danny, remains on the grass on the Columbine grounds, his body unmoved. He will remain for more than a day after he is killed. The Bernalls receive confirmation that their daughter, Cassie, is among the dead, as does the wife of Dave Sanders. Frank DeAngelis is expected to speak at a Catholic mega-church nearby. When he goes to the altar, he breaks down crying. Both the Harris and Klebold families hire attorneys, who tell them it’s better to keep quiet. Both release statements expressing their condolences for the victims and the families of victims.

FBI Agent Fuselier continues to worry about the conspiracy lens on the school shooting; even the cops, it seems, believe the massacre to be the work of terrorists or some larger group. Cullen writes, “The legacy of those [conspiracy] theories, and Jeffco’s response to them, would haunt the Columbine recovery in peculiar ways” (108). Cullen sheds light on the scope of the investigation ahead: “Detectives planned to question every student and teacher at Columbine and every friend, relative, and associate of the killers, past or present.