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American Morning

More Than 60 Gruesome Pictures From Columbine Crime Scene Have Been Leaked

Aired March 06, 2002 - 09:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Very upsetting postscript to the 1999 Columbine high school shooting in Colorado that left 15 students dead. More than 60 gruesome pictures from the crime scene have been leaked. Now law enforcement officials want them back before the photos of the worst school shooting in U.S. history find their way to the Internet, and victims' families want to know who is responsible?

CNN's Jeff Flock has more on this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We thought we'd seen the worst of the Columbine High School shootings: running children, SWAT teams, victims, but there's more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an incredible scene.

FLOCK (on camera): Worse than anything we've seen so far?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FLOCK (voice-over): Brian Rohrbough is talking about crime scene photographs of the massacre, somehow, incredibly, have leaked out. When you learned these photos had gotten out, what was your first thought?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shock, absolute amazement.

FLOCK: That's because Rohrbough, whose 15-year-old son, Danny, was killed at Columbine, was told by the Jefferson County sheriff's department the pictures would never be released.

(on camera): Is this one photograph, two photos -- how many?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is literally hundreds of photographs.

FLOCK (voice-over): The sheriff's department is trying to verify the authenticity of the photos and is investigating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's disgusting to us that this is out there. We did not want this to happen. We did not plan for this to happen. FLOCK (on camera): The crime scene photographs are gruesome. I viewed one today depicting shooters Harris and Klebold lying in pools of blood in the school library.

(voice-over): Here in the newsroom of "The Rocky Mountain News," the paper has viewed 63 separate photographs like that. Jeff Kass broke the story of the leaks.

(on camera): Are there any that would be suitable for publication?

JEFF KASS, "ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS": Right now, we have no plans to publish any of the photos.

FLOCK (voice-over): After the paper ran its story about the photographs, it got this letter from the sheriff, demanding that it turn them over.

(on camera): You going to do that?

KASS: We're not.

FLOCK: The paper says it thinks it's the sheriff's office that has the explaining to do. Brian Rohrbough agrees. He's been fighting to prove sheriff's deputies were negligent in the shootings.

(on camera): You still think it's a possibility that friendly fire killed either your son, or others?

BRIAN ROHRBOUGH, VICTIM'S FATHER: Well, in the case of my son, it's looks virtually certain, but yes, I do.

FLOCK (voice-over): And as painful as seeing the photos has been, Rohrbough thinks they might contain evidence that could prove it and make the Columbine tragedy even worse than it was.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN in Denver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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