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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.
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