As Columbine High School students returned to class on Monday for the first time since the massacre almost two weeks ago, a 22-year-old graduate of the school was charged with providing a powerful, semi-automatic handgun to one of the killers.
A spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said he did not know whether the man, Mark Edward Manes, sold, gave or lent the gun or which gunman, Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold, was the recipient.
Someone who worked with Harris and Klebold at a local pizza parlor put Manes in touch with them, said Steve Davis, the sheriff’s spokesman.
Federal agents tracked the pistol, a Tec-DC9, from its manufacturer, Navegar Inc., in Miami to a wholesaler in Illinois and then to a gun shop in a suburb 5 miles north of Denver. After the shop closed last June, Larry Russell, a business partner of the owner, sold the gun at a Denver area gun show.
Manes was booked on a charge of providing a gun to a minor, a felony, and was released on $15,000 bond.
A conviction could carry penalties as severe as six years in jail and a $500,000 fine.
Klebold’s girlfriend, Robyn Anderson, has admitted buying two shotguns and a rifle for him. But she was not charged because it is legal in Colorado for a minor to own shotguns and rifles.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office reported Monday that Harris had the anti-depressant Luvox in his system when he and Klebold went on a shooting and bombing rampage at the school, killing 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves. The Department of Defense has said that the Marines rejected Harris’ application for enlistment when it learned he was taking the drug, which is commonly prescribed for obsessive compulsive disorder, but can also be used to treat depression.
When the Columbine students returned to class Monday, at their former rival, Chatfield High School, “eight to 10 friends or associates” of the gunmen, who could “all be classified as witnesses,” were asked not to come, Davis said. He said that school officials had asked for a list of the students and called their parents, asking them to home school them for the remainder of the school year.
“I think there’s a lot of reasons, but primarily for their well-being, as well as because it’s a very uncomfortable, difficult time for everyone involved,” said Rick Kaufman, a spokesman for Jefferson County Public Schools.
Chatfield High School welcomed the Columbine students with banners and signs with messages including “We Are One.” The sign showed the Columbine school colors, blue and white, and the Chatfield colors, maroon and white, intertwined into a heart shape.
For the rest of the school year Chatfield students will attend school in the morning and Columbine students will have classes in the afternoon.
“I’m a little nervous,” said Sara Filipiak,” 15, a freshman. “But I want to be with my classmates and teachers.” The cheerleader from Columbine said she was in the cafeteria when the shooting began on April 20.
Mental health counselors were in every classroom, encouraging students to describe what they saw. For students overcome with emotion, the school had set aside “safe rooms.”
Some students said they did not want to talk to counselors.
“I feel more comfortable talking to my friends and stuff,” said Filipiak, who said she also talked to her family about her experience.
In an effort to preserve privacy, sheriff’s deputies kept reporters away from Chatfield, largely standing on the far side of a busy avenue. With television networks competing intensely over the story, Jon DeStefano, president of the Jefferson County Public Schools, announced Friday that at least one news organization had supplied video cameras to students, offering to pay them to surreptitiously film inside the school.
