No easy answers : the truth behind the murders at Columbine High School

On April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, two seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, walked into their school and shot to death twelve students and one teacher, and wounded many others. It was the worst single act of murder at a school in U.S. history. Few people knew Dylan Klebold or Eric Harris better than Brooks Brown. Brown and Klebold were best friends in grade school, and years later, at Columbine, Brown was privy to some of Harris and Klebolds darkest fantasies and most troubling revelations. After the shootings, Brown was even accused by the police of having been in on the massacre simply because he had been friends with the killers. Now, for the first time, Brown, with journalist Rob Merritt, gets to tell his full version of the story. He describes the warning signs that were missed or ignored, and the evidence that was kept hidden from the public after the murders. He takes on those who say that rock music or video games caused Klebold and Harris to kill their classmates and explores what it might have been that pushed these two young men, from supposedly stable families, to harbor such violent and apocalyptic dreams. Shocking as well as inspirational and insightful, No Easy Answers is an authentic wake-up call for all the psychologists, authorities, parents, and law enforcement personnel who have attempted to understand the murders at Columbine High School. As the title suggests, the book offers no easy answers, but instead presents the unvarnished facts about growing up as an alienated teenager in America today. Brooks Brown graduated from Columbine High School in 1999; this is his first book. Most recently, Brooks worked and consulted on Michael Moore's latest documentary called Bowling for Columbine. He lives in Littleton, Colorado. Rob Merritt graduated from the University of Iowa School of Journalism in 1998 and currently works as a newspaper writer in Marshalltown, Iowa. No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine by Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt. In No Easy Answers, Brooks Brown, with co-author Rob Merritt, relates his personal experience of growing up with Dylan Klebold, one of the two Columbine shooters, and attending Columbine High School with Dylan and Eric Harris, the second shooter. This compelling true story answers many questions about the two boys who horrified their community and the world by shooting to death twelve students and one teacher at their high school in Littleton, Colorado in April 1999. In the hope that his story will help prevent future acts of school violence, Brooks Brown pours his heart and soul into the retelling of this tragic event that affected so many Cover Page 1 What People Are Saying About no easy answers 3 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Acknowledgments 7 Contents 9 Part One: COLUMBINE 12 1: “get out of here” 13 2: why? 31 3: normandy 40 4: video games 53 5: freshmen at columbine 66 6: troubles 82 7: broken glass 99 8: the web pages 112 9: suburban life 127 10: friendship renewed 136 11: the calm before the storm 147 Part Two: AFTERMATH 162 12: the nightmare begins 163 13: rachel 179 14: no answers 191 15: I stand accused 205 16: the families 228 17: the videotapes 236 18: anniversary 252 19: the truth comes out 263 20: final hope 270 21: hollow victory 289 22: little brother 300 23: where do we go? 317 EBC,Converted