Columbine Students Recall 'Surreal' Day
April 20 -- It was a sunny Tuesday morning five years ago when high school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold set off for school, determined to destroy everything and everyone that lay in their path.
A frantic call from Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., came into the 911 dispatcher on April 20, 1999, as the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history unfolded.
"I'm a teacher here at Columbine High School," the caller said. "There is a student here with a gun. He has shot out a window. Oh God. Oh God."
By the time the gunfire stopped, 15 people were left dead, including Harris, 18, and Klebold,17, who shot themselves after storming the school with bombs, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons. More than 20 were wounded.
Michael Johnson, then 15, was sitting in the schoolyard with friends when he was shot three times, taking bullets in his leg, arm and jaw. He still has a pink scar along his right jaw.
"I heard some popping sounds to my left and I saw these two guys shooting," said Johnson, now 20. "It was surreal. At first I was — we were — all kind of denial. I mean none of us really believed what it really was until a couple of us got shot."
‘Popping Sounds’
Despite his injuries, Johnson was able to scramble for shelter behind a shed to escape the mayhem.
"As I ran up behind the shed, I collapsed and I was slipping in and out of consciousness and I really thought that I was dying, that I was dead," Johnson said.
From the schoolyard, Harris and Klebold made their way inside the school and headed to the cafeteria. Surveillance video showed the two youths on their rampage, wielding guns and explosives, as terror overtook the school. Desperate calls from people trapped in classrooms flooded the 911 system.
"The school is in a panic and I'm in the library and I've got students down under the table, kids' heads under the table," one teacher who called in told the emergency operator. "Kids are screaming and the teachers are trying to take control."
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