- GOLDEN - Daniel Rohrbough
was killed by a large caliber bullet, one of three that hit the teen-ager
during the attack at Columbine High School, according to his autopsy report.
Jefferson County, with the permission of Rohrbough's family, released the
autopsy publicly for the first time Wednesday.
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- The Rohrbough family is suing Jefferson County Sheriff
John Stone, the sheriff's office and a number of deputies, claiming bullets
from an officer's gun killed Rohrbough as he fled gunfire from the two
young gunmen who carried out the April 20, 1999, attack on the school.
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- "There is absolutely nothing to substantiate that
claim," Stone said late Wednesday. "That is totally unfactual."
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- Sheriff's investigators say Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
killed 12 of their classmates -- including Rohrbough -- and a teacher before
taking their own lives.
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- District Judge R. Brooke Jackson earlier this week ordered
the release of the Rohrbough autopsy as well as the release of summaries
of the autopsies conducted on 11 of the other victims and Klebold.
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- Autopsy reports for student Isaiah Shoels and Harris
were released previously.
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- Rohrbough died after suffering extensive damage to his
lungs, heart, aorta and esophagus from a bullet that ripped through his
chest, entering on the left side and exiting through his right shoulder,
according to the autopsy.
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- Another bullet hit him in the left side near the middle
of his abdomen, lacerating his stomach and liver. That bullet was recovered
from his abdomen.
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- A third bullet hit him in the left knee and traveled
downward, exiting from his calf.
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- The autopsy report says the wounds are consistent with
9mm ammunition.
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- Klebold repeatedly fired a 9mm TEC-DC9 during the rampage.
A ballistics report issued last year by the sheriff's office lists a number
of 9mm weapons belonging to police officers at the scene as well.
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- Brian Rohrbough, Daniel's father, said Wednesday that
his son's wounds indicate he was running from Klebold and Harris when he
was intentionally shot by a police officer who thought he was one of the
gunmen.
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- "Our claims are based on physical evidence, not
just allegations," Brian Rohrbough said. "Our claims are he was
running from the gunmen when he was shot and killed. I do not believe he
was caught in a crossfire. I believe he was aimed at by an officer who
suspected him as being a gunman."
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- The sheriff's investigative report, compiled in the months
after the shooting and released last spring, indicated Rohrbough was hit
in the leg by a shot fired by either Harris or Klebold, then killed as
he lay on the ground by two shots fired by Klebold at close range.
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- Brian Rohrbough said the absence of powder burns proves
his son was shot from a distance by an officer, not at close range by Klebold.
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- The 10-page autopsy report by Dr. Ben Galloway, a forensic
pathologist, notes samples of skin from the two "deeply penetrating"
wounds show no "significant powder residue."
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- Brian Rohrbough said the bullet that lodged in his son's
liver was identified as having come from Klebold's gun, although he also
believes that Daniel's back was to Harris and Klebold as he ran from them.
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- The apparent contradiction can be explained, he said,
by the reports from witnesses that Klebold shot Daniel at close range only
after the fatal shot had been fired by police and that Klebold waited until
officers left before approaching Daniel and firing that shot.
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- "What we think happened there is he was shot after
he was laying on the ground. That's also consistent with eyewitnesses who
all say he was shot one time" as he lay on the ground, Brian Rohrbough
said.
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- "The issue with that bullet, based on the information
we have today, it is pretty likely that shot was fired after he was dead."
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- Brian Rohrbough said he also bases his "friendly
fire" claim on the trajectory of the fatal bullet -- which the autopsy
says traveled upward at about "25 degrees in the horizontal plane"
-- and the statements of two witnesses, a teacher who knew his son Daniel
and a police officer who saw him fall.
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- Both witnesses, Brian Rohrbough said, have agreed to
testify for the Rohrbough family in their pending lawsuit.
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- The sheriff's investigative report says Rohrbough was
one of the first victims, shot between 11:19 and 11:22 a.m., minutes before
Deputy Neil Gardner, the school resource officer and the first lawman on
the scene, was alerted to the attack.
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- Brian Rohrbough challenged that account, saying his witnesses
will testify that at least seven officers were on the scene when Daniel
was shot.
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- Brian Rohrbough said Gardiner is not the officer that
he believes shot Daniel.
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- "That would be an incorrect assumption," he
said. "We have neither named an officer nor will we until we have
absolute proof."
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- Part of that proof, Rohrbough said, could come from bullet
holes left in the clothes Daniel was wearing. But he said the sheriff's
office has refused to return the clothing, claiming it is a "biohazard."
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- "I believe the clothes either verify my claims or
refute them," Brian Rohrbough said. "If the sheriff's office
can show us something that refutes them, we will withdraw our lawsuit."
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