Daniel Lee Rohrbough

The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in
Columbine, an unincorporated area in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and
Littleton. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students
and one teacher. An additional 21 students and other persons were injured while attempting to
escape. The pair then committed suicide. In addition, it is the fourth-deadliest school massacre in
United States history, after the 1927 Bath School disaster, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the 1966
University of Texas massacre, and the deadliest for an American high school.
(Sasha Cohen has had the nerve to create a memorial for these killers on THIS site. Please tell her
that we want to remember the victims we love, not their killers. They get enough publicity already.
This site is for angels, let's keep it that way.)
Daniel Rohrbough enjoyed electronics and computer games. He was looking forward to getting his
driver's permit soon. Remembered as a fun guy. He helped in his father's stereo business every day
after school and, during the summer, he worked on his grandfather's farm harvesting wheat as he had
done since he was three. He used the money he earned to buy Christmas presents for his family. On
Tuesday Danny's father Brian knew something was wrong when his son failed to show up at the shop
after school like normal.

Dan was heading out of the cafeteria that morning with friends Lance Kirklin and Sean Graves when
the shooters opened fire down the grassy knoll outside the school's west entrance. There was no
warning for Danny and no chance: He was felled by shots to the abdomen and left leg. Lance tried to
catch him but was shot as well. Moments later Dylan Klebold shot him again at point-blank range in
the chest. He bled to death on the sidewalk outside the school where he lay for nearly 2 days before
paramedics were allowed to move him.

The Rohrboughs were kept in the dark about what had happened to their son; law enforcement told them
they didn't know for certain that the body on the sidewalk was Dan Rohrbough and wouldn't let the
family in to check for themselves. It wasn't till the morning after the shootings that the
Rohrboughs found out for certain what they already knew in their hearts: Danny was indeed the dead
boy outside and they learned this news because it was splashed all over the morning news and not
because the family was told directly by officials.

There was even more controversy over Daniel's death when Arapahoe County Deputy James Taylor, who
had been a friend of the Rohrbough family, told Danny's parents that the boy may have been killed by
'friendly fire' from a Denver SWAT team member. Lawsuits and independent investigation has confirmed
that Dan died from the shot fired by Eric Harris but it was never made clear whether or not Danny
was hit in the crossfire by a bullet from law enforcement. The family later sued Taylor, who was
suspended from the force. Additionally, there was initial confusion over which gunman was the one to
have killed Dan Rohrbough. The Columbine Report states that it was Dylan Klebold who fired the fatal
shot but an independent investigation by the El Paso County Sheriff's Dept. determined it was Eric
Harris' weapon that was responsible.

He was known in the media reports later as "the boy who held the door open" for friends, allowing
them to escape from the school during the assault. It's a very heroic notion but, like many of the
stories of martyrdom during the crisis, doesn't seem to be supported by witness statements entered
into the official reports that followed the investigation of the shootings. But whether he did or
didn't, all the people who knew him could agree on one thing: Danny was a wonderful young man and he
would be sorely missed.

Shortly after learning of his death, Dan's mother Sue Petrone started a load of laundry in order to
"do something normal" and came across Daniel's shirt and socks. "The little things just bring back
the horror of the fact that he's not with us any more," she said. She didn't often see Dan in the
mornings before his death but that last morning they managed to come together for a brief chat that
ended with a hug, a kiss, and her telling him she loved him. It was the last time she saw him
alive.