The Plot Sickens

John Hicks no longer works for the sheriff's office and has not responded to media requests for interviews. Also no longer employed there is division chief John Kiekbusch, who told reporters ten days after the massacre that the Brown report was a minor, isolated complaint that didn't merit much investigation. At the time, the official line about the Columbine attack was that it came "out of nowhere" and could not have been prevented.

These days, that's a difficult line to maintain as each new revelation adds to the pile of clues and warning signs Klebold and Harris left behind as they plotted their apocalypse. ("Only the Kremlin on May Day has seen more red flags," as one Denver Post editorial put it.) The latest discovery helps to fill in the story of how the two killers' vengeful behavior escalated from sneaking out at night to get drunk and set off fireworks to firing guns at houses, building pipe bombs and making lists of people who deserved to die.

Shot to hell: Eric Harris blows smoke off his gun in a video recently released by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

Related Content

• Newtown, Aurora and Columbine: Mass shootings, gun hysteria...and MK Ultra?
  December 18, 2012
• James Holmes rumor mill after Aurora shootings: More viral than Columbine
  July 20, 2012
• The Columbine shootings continue to "inspire" Hollywood
  March 22, 2012
• Tom Tancredo appeals to the Republican base -- but how about anyone else?
  May 31, 2013
• The battle against bullying begins with the Bard
  April 4, 2013

More About

• Eric Harris
• Ted Mink
• Dylan Klebold
• Shootings
• School Shootings

A remaining question is whether people with badges were paying any attention. And if so, why they did nothing.

Click here to read related stories.