SATURDAY marks the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, a watershed moment in American history that left 13 dead, 24 ɪɴᴊᴜʀᴇᴅ, and a nation scarred following a horrifying 49-minute rampage.
The morning of April 20, 1999, was sunny and warm in Littleton, Colorado, with the bright spring weather offering no forewarning of the dark cloud that would soon descend over the picturesque mountain town.
William ‘Dave’ Sanders, 48, was the only teacher ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ during the Columbine massacreCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
Sanders helped clear hundreds of students out of the cafeteria before ɢᴜɴmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, burst through the doorCredit: Getty – Contributor
Tragically, 13 people were ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ during the rampage and more than 20 others ɪɴᴊᴜʀᴇᴅ
It was 17 days before graduation and summer break was on the horizon, but standing outside in the parking lot of Columbine High, two disaffected teens dressed in trench coats, Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold, were readying a storm of depravity.
At around 11:15 am, a volley of ɢᴜɴfire was heard thundering out in the parking lot.
Harris, 18, and Klebold, 17, were heavily armed with sawed-off sʜᴏᴛɢᴜɴs, an assault rifle, handɢᴜɴs, and an assortment of homemade ʙᴏᴍʙs.
They began indiscriminately firing at their classmates, leaving two dead on the lawn before making their way inside the school toward the cafeteria in search of more victims.
William “Dave” Sanders, a beloved business teacher and basketball coach who had worked at the school for 25 years, heard the commotion outside and ran to the cafeteria to sound the alarm.
Sanders was able to shepherd roughly 200 students and staff to safety up a staircase, urging them to find cover elsewhere in the school and stay away from any windows.
When Klebold and Harris burst into the cafeteria, Sanders called out to those still inside with him to “Get down!”
ɢᴜɴsʜᴏᴛs echoed and students fell. Eventually, Sanders called out for everyone to run and the coach’s instructions were quickly obeyed.
Standing bravely in the smoke-filled cafeteria, Sanders followed the last of the students up the stairs and tried to secure as much of the school as he could.
He was guiding a group of students toward a science classroom when he encountered Klebold and Harris in a hallway on the north side of the building
Sanders eventually stumbled into the classroom after the students.
Tragically, he’d been sʜᴏᴛ twice, once in the back and once in the neck.
He was bleeding heavily and fading fast.
In a desperate attempt to keep him alive, students removed their shirts and pressed them against his wounds to try to stem the bleeding.
Another student removed Sanders’ wallet from his pocket and showed him a picture of his wife and three daughters to keep him conscious, whispering to him, “They’re coming. Just hold on. You can do it.”
“I’m not going to make it,” Sanders responded.
“Tell my girls I love them.”
‘IMMEDIATE DENIAL’
Across town, Sanders’ daughter, Coni Sanders, had arrived at work in a fluster.
The 25-year-old mom of two had gotten into a dispute with the parking attendant at her office over a space reserved for her boss which caused her to burst into tears.
After composing herself in the bathroom and touching up her makeup, Coni went to her boss’ office to inform him of the quarrel she’d just had on his behalf.
By this time it was around 11:30, and, on approach, Coni heard her boss mention something about “stupid kids” at Columbine.
“I poked my head in and said, ‘Hey, watch your mouth. My dad teaches there,’ and everybody just turned white, and they pushed me out of the office and down the hall into an empty room and told me there’d been an incident at Columbine,” Coni recounted to The U.S. Sun.
“It wasn’t clear what was happening, they told me something about there being hostages, but my response was immediate denial.
“I told them there are 2,000 kids at that school so my dad is fine. I said he was fine and I went back to my desk, but people kept circling me and told me to go home.”
He told me that he loved me and to be nice to my sister, and then he hugged me, which he never really did […] it felt like a goodbye.
Coni SandersDave Sanders’ Daughter
After brushing off the concerns of her colleagues, Coni eventually relented and agreed to be driven to her mom’s house by one of her co-workers.
The co-worker switched off the radio and they drove the short journey in complete silence.
Outside on the street, there were numerous emergency service vehicles parked at the side of the road. Helicopters were also circling above.
Coni walked inside her mom’s home to find her, her sisters, and other relatives kneeling on the floor, silently watching the news on her father’s new TV, trying to spot him in the live images of students and staff being evacuated from the school.
“There would be the occasional random scream of ‘Is that him?!’ before it went silent again,” said Coni.
“I remember seeing some kids with their shirts off and thinking maybe they have tried to stop the bleeding on somebody or something.
“And then the helicopter zoomed in on this sign in a window that said, ‘1 bleeding to death.’
“At that point, my mom just lost it and she said, ‘That poor student I just can’t imagine what’s happening in there right now.’
“But that sign was actually about my dad.
“The students that were in the room with him as he was bleeding to death had tried to call 911 and get him help but nobody was coming.
“He was in that room for three-and-a-half hours bleeding to death before they reached him – but it was too late.”
Saunders is seen on surveillance footage running toward a staircaseCredit: Getty
Sanders worked as a business teacher at Columbine for 24 years and also coached the girls’ softball and basketball teamsCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
Coni Sanders says she’s so proud of her father for the bravery he showed but spent years angry at him for not coming homeCredit: AP
Eric Harris, a self-proclaimed Nazi and admirer of Adolf Hitler, was believed to be the mastermind behind the Columbine shootingCredit: Reuters
Dylan Klebold was the second ɢᴜɴmanCredit: Reuters
PITILESS RAMPAGE
As Dave Sanders lay dying, waiting for help that would come too late, Klebold and Harris marched on undeterred with the plot of terror they’d spent months planning.
The pair continued to aimlessly fire their weapons throughout the school’s halls before entering the library at 11:29 am, where 52 students and two librarians were obliviously gathered.
Some students were sʜᴏᴛ dead at their desks, one of whom was still holding a pencil when he was fatally struck in the back.
Harris played a twisted game of “peek-a-boo” with others, suddenly ducking underneath the tables and opening fire at close range upon those he found clambering for cover beneath.
Many students in the library played dead. By the time Klebold and Harris left seven minutes later, 10 were no longer playing.
The ɢᴜɴmen then made their way back through the school and eventually into the cafeteria where they attempted to detonate two 35-pound propane ʙᴏᴍʙs they’d planted in backpacks but were unsuccessful.
Right after it happened we had some anger towards him, like, ‘How could you do that? How could you run towards danger?’
Coni Sanders
They returned to the library at 12:05 pm and added themselves to the dead with synchronized self-inflicted ɢᴜɴsʜᴏᴛ wounds.
By this time, SWAT teams had already entered the building but the fates of Klebold and Harris wouldn’t be realized for another two-and-a-half hours.
Emergency services finally made it to the science room where Sanders had been bleeding out sometime before 3:30 pm, or nearly four hours after he was sʜᴏᴛ.
He was found lying on the ground with a pile of blood-stained T-shirts on and around his body, surrounded by students who had desperately tried to save his life.
The SWAT team ordered the students to exit the room slowly with their hands on their heads.
Student Aaron Hancey, who had been administering first aid to Sanders for the duration of those almost four hours, asked to stay at the coach’s side.
Reluctantly, Hancey agreed to leave under the instruction of officers.
Sometime after, Sanders joined the dead.
The 47-year-old was the only teacher ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ at Columbine.
Coni said Sanders wouldn’t even have been at the school that day, had it not been for a cruel twist of fate.
CRUEL TWIST OF FATE
Dave Sanders had been planning to take off Tuesday, April 20, from work to celebrate his mother-in-law’s birthday.
He had been scheduled to go to lunch with Coni’s mom, aunt, and grandmother that day but decided to work instead after getting into an argument with his wife that morning.
Normally, he’d never leave the house without kissing Coni’s mom, Linda, goodbye.
But this time, he decided to wave to his wife from the driveway.
Sanders is pictured with three of his grandchildren, shortly before his deathCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
Columbine served as a sort of ignition point for the school shooting epidemic currently plaguing the USCredit: AP:Associated Press
A student cries after being reunited with her mother in the aftermath of the shootingCredit: Reuters
Columbine was the deadliest shooting of its kind at the time. Listed above are all 13 of the massacre’s victimsCredit: AP:Associated Press
That was the last time Linda ever saw her husband.
Today, she is still suffering from immense grief because of the tragic chain of events that followed their fateful, petty feud.
“She’s lived a really hard existence since he died,” said Coni.
“My mom just sits in her house and watches love stories, she watches the Hallmark movie channel and she’s done that for the last 25 years.
“She hasn’t worked, she hasn’t done anything; she still has a Friday night date night, where she has a pizza and beer and talks to him.
“It’s heartbreaking.”
A FINAL GOODBYE
Coni’s final interaction with her father is a far less painful – even comforting – memory.
She last saw her dad on April 17, when the pair were helping one of her siblings move into a new home.
Describing her dad as stoic and measured, Coni said typically Sanders would display his affection with a coach’s pat on the shoulder.
But something was different that day.
“It was fairly bizarre because he told me that he loved me and to be nice to my sister, and then he hugged me, which he never really did,” Coni reflected.
“It felt weird in that moment; it felt like a goodbye because there was no reference to it.
“It wasn’t like something sad was happening, or that I was emotional, but it did feel like a goodbye and that’s been really hard because of what happened with my mom and him.”
A HERO REMEMBERED
While they continued watching the TV, hoping for a sight of Sanders, Coni and her family eventually decided to go and see if their father had been taken to a local hospital and all split off into different directions.
The search proved fruitless, so instead they reconvened at another local school that was serving as a reunification center for evacuated students and their families.
Still, Sanders didn’t show.
Coni Sanders, seen with her sister Cindy Smith, visits Columbine each year with her family to remember her dad and the other 12 lives so tragically claimedCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
Coni’s mom Linda has struggled to come to terms with Dave Sanders’ deathCredit: AP:Associated Press
A Columbine high school student puts up a sign on a memorial outside Light of the World Catholic Church in Littleton, on April 21, 1999Credit: Reuters
Coni’s mom provided investigators with a description of what her husband was wearing when she watched him leave for work that morning and the family returned home without him.
Patiently and anxiously they waited for the phone to ring, and eventually, it did.
Only it wasn’t Sanders on the other end of the line when Coni’s mom picked up the receiver – it was a reporter.
“We have some information that your husband was ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ. Do you have any comment?” the reporter asked Coni’s mom.
That’s how the news was broken to Sanders’ family.
Coni’s mom smashed the phone on the ground, screaming and yelling in a knee-jerk of grief.
He was a teacher for 24 years, and his influence went far beyond the walls of his classroom or the bounds of the playing fields he coached on.
Forever, for the remainder of time, he’s left a mark on the world.Coni Sanders
Coni said she remembers falling completely numb. She walked outside to lie down on the lawn and looked up at the sky.
“I could see people talking to me, but I couldn’t hear them. It was just such a shock,” she said.
For a while, Coni says she and her family felt almost resentful toward her father for putting himself in harm’s way to save others.
“We didn’t want him to be a hero, we wanted him to come home,” said Coni.
“Right after it happened we had some anger towards him, like, ‘How could you do that? How could you run towards danger?’
“We were quite selfish, which is a common reaction. Right after it happened we felt he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and we didn’t understand what had happened.
“But over the years, we’ve come to determine that he was in the right place at the right time.
“We are so proud of him […] he was a teacher for 24 years, and his influence went far beyond the walls of his classroom or the bounds of the playing fields he coached on.
“Forever, for the remainder of time, he’s left a mark on the world.
“And there are hundreds of people still living today who have had children who wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for him – and that’s all down to my dad.”
‘CARRYING ON HIS LEGACY’
Coni will be spending the 25th anniversary of the Columbine massacre the way she has somberly commemorated each of the last annual milestones: by attending a service at the school with her family.
Regularly, she says survivors approach her to thank her for her father’s bravery.
Some have even handed their children to her in a show of gratitude, infants who would’ve otherwise been deprived the chance to live had it not been for Sanders.
Sanders loved spending time with his family, particularly his grandchildren, whom he went above and beyond to entertainCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
Sanders’ ‘wall of achievements’ seen displayed in his home officeCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
Coni is carrying her father’s legacy forward by working with violent offenders to prevent future tragediesCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
Today, Columbine is seen not only as a haunting moment of national mourning but a turning point that irrevocably altered the American psyche.
It would unfortunately not be the last massacre of its kind and, instead, Columbine served as a sort of ignition point for the school shooting epidemic currently plaguing the US.
According to The Washington Post, there have been 404 school shootings in the US since Columbine, with more than 370,000 students experiencing ɢᴜɴ violence in places intended for learning.
In 2024 alone, as of March 6, there had been at least 16 school shootings across the country, according to CNN.
Three of those shootings were on college campuses, and 13 were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left nine people dead and at least 23 others ɪɴᴊᴜʀᴇᴅ.
Earlier this month, the Colorado House of Representatives passed a bill to ban the sale or transfer of assault weapons.
But there are doubts it will pass through the state’s Senate.
Banning the kind of automatic weapons wielded by Harris and Klebold has so far been prevented by the US Constitution’s Right to Bear Arms.
In the meantime, Coni, who lives in Littleton a short drive from the Columbine campus, is doing her bit to stem the rising tide of ɢᴜɴ violence.
Student saved by Saunders speaks
Amy Over was just weeks away from graduation at Columbine High School in April of 1999 when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold burst onto campus wielding an arsenal of weapons.
The 18-year-old was excited to wrap up the school year and move on to college.
Having received confirmation that she’d landed a basketball scholarship to her chosen school the night before, Amy stopped by to see her coach, Dave Sanders, before class to share the good news and thank him.
“Little did I know that was the last time I was ever going to see him,” Amy told The U.S. Sun in 2022.
“But I got to thank him and just, you know, give him a hug and a high five before heading off to my classes.”
Amy had been sitting in the cafeteria at 11:19am when she heard a succession of loud popping noises coming from just outside the front doors.
Sanders, who was also inside the cafeteria, called out for the students to take cover and stay away from the windows.
“So I ran to a table by one of the front entrance doors in the cafeteria with one of my peers,” recounted Amy.
“And I just looked to my coach for the next instructions, because I trusted him, I knew him, and I knew the serious looks on his face meant that this was a life or death situation.”
The room fell eerily quiet, Amy remembers. But the deafening silence was suddenly broken by a shout from Sanders telling everyone to run as Klebold and Harris burst inside.
Amy followed Sanders’ instructions without hesitation. She put her head down and ran as fast as she could, passing by the bodies of victims as she clamored towards the exit.
Dave Sanders saved her life.
In the wake of her father’s death, Coni said she became quietly consumed by the question of what happened in Klebold and Harris’ lives that prompted them to massacre their classmates.
Seeking an answer, Coni studied psychology at college and spent seven years working in a mental health hospital on low pay before being able to dedicate herself to helping disaffected young people.
Inspired by her father, she now works with the same justice system “diversion program” that Harris and Klebold had been placed on in the months preceding the shooting.
The pair had both been arrested before the attack for breaking into a van and were given anger management sessions as part of the scheme.
Coni said she sees her line of work as a way of carrying her father’s legacy forward, saving people and preventing future tragedies by helping violent offenders choose different paths.
“I kind of see myself as a pre-responder, preventing future victims like my dad so we don’t have so much victim services and I really see it as an honor to do this work,” said Coni.
“I’ve even had some clients come in who’ve said, like, ‘Man, if I had a ɢᴜɴ, I would have sʜᴏᴛ up my school.’
“There’s just so much pain and grief in adolescence.
“And so this is how I carry on his legacy.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
Coni said it’s remarkable to see the impact her dad’s heroics had on hundreds of students at ColumbineCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
She is determined to tackle the causes of mass shootings at their source: peopleCredit: Courtesy of Coni Sanders
