Columbine's Boy in the Window

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Critically wounded Patrick Ireland escapes the Columbine High library on April 20, 1999.

Columbine's Boy in the Window
By Patrick Ireland
With Terry Frei

The antidote to the unfortunate emphasis on the killers and their motives in much of the 10th-anniversary coverage and in recent books. On April 20, 1999, Patrick Ireland was shot twice in the head and once in the foot during the carnage in the Columbine library. When the killers left the library, his surviving classmates tried to get him to come with them, but had to give up and and fled without him. Over several hours, Patrick -- with one side paralyzed, with his right foot shattered and useless, with a shotgun pellet eight inches into his brain, and with even his survival in doubt -- crawled to the second-floor window. Then, with the world watching, he dropped out of it, into the arms of SWAT team officers. His recovery was arduous and amazing, and it is a story of determination, support from around the world, triumph, and success in his adult life. 

A Project in Progress
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