LoserAnnie

The stars finally aligned for a formal sit down with police on October 25, six months after Columbine. The Harrises, their attorneys, and a private investigator met with Kiekbusch, Sheriff John Stone, undersheriff John Dunaway, lead Columbine investigator Kate Battan, and District Attorney Dave Thomas. Thomas also recalls sheriffs Sgt. Randy West attending.

The Harrises gave a history of Eric's life up until Columbine, Dave Thomas says. His account begins to fill in some of the details the sheriff's office will not discuss.

The approximately two-hour meeting took place at the law offices of Harris attorneys Ben Colkitt and Abe Hutt; Thomas sat next to Wayne Harris at the conference table.

“ I could have asked questions, and I may have asked one or two, but by and large the questioning was done by the sheriff's department, and most of it with the Harrises wasn't question and answer anyway, ” Thomas says. “ they [ The Harrises ] basically narrated for a couple of hours. ”

Wayne and Katherine Harris (brother Kevin Harris was not there) came across as “ a pretty normal, suburban family who obviously cared about their son, cared about their family, thought they did things the right way, ” said Thomas.

He thought they were more cautious than the Klebolds. Wayne looked to be controlling his emotions, possibly owing to his military background. Nothing struck Thomas as inappropriate in the way the Harrises acted.

The Harris attorneys did not make any remarks. But Thomas looked to see if they coached, or impeded, their clients. He says they did not. “there was no humor” he says of the mood in the room. “There was no lightness at all. It was just a very somber occasion. We were introduced and basically the Harrises did virtually all of the talking.”

The Harrises, apparently, had thought through the presentation of Eric's life they would give, but it did not seem canned, according to Thomas. Katherine Harris talked more than her husband.

“ They had a lot of photos with them, ” Thomas said. “ They passed them around and let us look at them and I think at least the sense that I got is that they were very passionate about wanting us to understand that this was a young man not unlike most young men. That he wasn't some diabolical monster, or that he had been causing trouble throughout his life and was somehow, was a bad seed, so to speak. That's the impression I got. Lots of family photos, and birthday parties, and soccer pictures, and places they'd lived, photographs of places they'd lived. “

“ And I think we were; I think all of our position was we were very respectful of just wanting to listen and let them say whatever they wanted to say. I remember very few questions being asked. They just narrated mostly, cause I think all of us viewed it as a starting point. We were just getting started with what ultimately might be a series of interviews. It just hasn't happened that way, but nobody seemed to be in a big rush or in a big hurry: 'Well, let's get on to what happened when he got to high school, and what happened the weekend before [ Columbine ]. Nobody did that. Everybody was very patient. ”

But the story stopped at Columbine High. “ And I think primarily it stopped because we were getting into current events and they were... they and their lawyers were a little bit unsure of whether...how and whether they wanted to proceed so, plus we'd been going for a couple of hours, ” Thomas said.

“ It was, I think during parts of it, very emotional. I mean they were very distraught. I think both the Harrises expressed dismay at how this... how their son could have been involved in this. I would describe them as agonized. Physically, they appeared to really to be in agony over all this. ”

Wayne Harris groaned whenever events at Columbine were mentioned. “ It was just like complete disbelief, ” Thomas said.

Katherine Harris, Thomas believes, cried at one point. “ Obviously, in conflict about, I think, some mixed feelings, ” he said. “ I mean, she obviously loved her son a great deal but obviously was pretty much aware of what he'd done but very conflicted over, How could this be?' I mean, How could he have done these things? ”

— columbine: a true crime story by jeff kass     𓏼  𓈒۫   ♪