Gunmen open fire at Denver area high school
Police: Students trapped in various locations
April 20, 1999
Web posted at: 2:47 p.m. EDT (1847 GMT)

LITTLETON, Colorado (CNN) -- Gunmen wearing masks and trench coats fired shots Tuesday inside a high school in a suburb southwest of Denver, said eyewitnesses. Eight people have been treated for injury; two were taken away by ambulance. There also were reports of an explosion and fire.

"Right now all I've got is there have been several shots fired, some explosions heard and some fire in the school," said Steve Davis, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department.

Varying eyewitness accounts said numerous people were shot. The condition of the injuries were not known, although authorities fear some of the injured may remain inside.

Ambulances and police cars arrived at Columbine High School around lunchtime. SWAT team members also were on the scene.

A girl identified only as Janine told KCNC-TV she saw men in black trench coats open fire.

"We saw three people get shot," she said. "They were just shooting. They didn't care who they shot. They were just shooting."

and it got worse from there...

http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.03/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.03/index.html)
http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.04/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.04/index.html)
http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.05/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.05/index.html)
http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.07/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.07/index.html)
http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.08/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.08/index.html)

When the incident at Columbine happened, I was only in the fifth grade, but I honestly didn't worry about it because I was in elementary school and I felt safe.

But when the school shooting in Minnesota happened just recently, we had a talk about it in my leadership class and our teacher told us that it reminded him of Columbine. In 1999 shortly after the Columbine shootings, my teacher said the school received an email from a former student saying how much she loved high school. Turned out that that former student was actually a teacher at Columbine when the shootings occured...A graduate from our California high school was in Colorado on that fateful day. Small world huh? When I found out, I agreed with what my teacher said...the Columbine shootings really hit home.