Arrest over gun used in Columbine massacre
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Your support makes all the difference.A MAN was arrested yesterday on suspicion of supplying the semi- automatic pistol used in the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
Mark Manes, 22, surrendered to authorities and was held on $15,000 bail. He could get up to six years in prison.
Manes was the first person since the massacre on 20 April to be accused of helping to arm the teenage killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who assembled an arsenal of four guns and more than 50 bombs.
Investigators said an employee at a pizza parlour where Harris and Klebold worked served as the middleman who put them in touch with Manes.
The arrest came 13 days after the attack in which Harris and Klebold - armed with a rifle, two sawn-off shotguns and the handgun - killed 12 students and a teacher and then committed suicide.
Columbine's pupils resumed classes yesterday, sharing facilities with a nearby school while hundreds of investigators continued to pore over the evidence in their shattered classrooms, cafeteria and library.
Nearly 2,000 Columbine pupils, with their teachers, took the afternoon shift at Chatfield High, just a short drive away, while Chatfield's students crammed their schedule into the morning.
Mental health counsellors were expected to be on hand in every classroom, and the normal curriculum was likely to be waived - yesterday, at least - in favour of a reassessment of the traumatic events of 20 April and their aftermath.
Traditionally, Columbine and Chatfield are rivals. But yesterday students from both schools were given blue and burgundy ribbons combining the colours of both institutions.
The arrangement presented considerable logistical problems - such as letting all the Chatfield cars leave before all the Columbine ones arrived - and police took several extraordinary security measures, such as changing all the locks and issuing special identification cards.
Some students were nervous that possible accomplices of Harris and Klebold might be in class with them. Investigators have neither confirmed nor ruled out the possibility of further suspects. But school officials said it was vital for the school to carry on as normally as possible and for seniors to graduate on schedule.
Local shops donated new school bags and books to replace the ones left inside the Columbine campus, which is still an active crime scene. Students who felt physically or psychologically unable to go to school were given official blessing to stay away. Five remain in hospital and 17 others are still recovering from serious gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
In the community of Littleton, attitudes towards Harris and Klebold appear to be polarising between anger and forgiveness. Last week, an Illinois carpenter, Greg Zanis, erected 15 crosses on a hill near the school. The two symbolising Harris and Klebold were soon pulled down. On Friday, he put up two new memorials to them, but when these too were vandalised he decided over the weekend to remove all 15.
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