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April 9, 1981 - Eric Harris

The 1999 Columbine attack became a grim reference point in American public life, shaping school safety policy, media coverage of mass violence, and public debate over youth culture for decades. Harris is generally regarded by researchers as the more ideologically driven of the pair, with journals and recordings revealing a calculated worldview that distinguished his motivation from simple grievance. The attack left 13 students and one teacher dead and wounded 23 others, and its influence on subsequent perpetrators of similar violence has been extensively documented.

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Eric Harris

Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) and Dylan Bennet Klebold ( KLEE-bohld; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) were an American mass murderer duo who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre, where they killed 13 students and 1 teacher and wounded 23 others. After killing most of their victims in the school library, the two died by suicide. At the time, the attack was the deadliest high school shooting in United States history. The ensuing media frenzy and moral panic turned "Columbine" into a byword for school shootings, and the event into one of the most infamous mass shootings.

Harris and Klebold met while attending middle school and gradually became close. By their junior year of high school, they were described as best friends who were dependent on one another. Early reports characterized them as unpopular and frequent targets of bullying; however, many peers later stated that the two were not near the bottom of the school's social hierarchy, as both had numerous friends and active social lives. Columbine High School was alleged to have an intense "jock culture", in which popular students—primarily athletes—received preferential treatment from faculty and peers.

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