ERIC DAVID HARRIS--1981-1999
Eric David Harris was born on April 9th, 1981 (Aries). He was the 18 year old son of Wayne Nelson Harris and Katherine (Kathy) Ann [Pool] Harris. Younger brother to Kevin Harris.
Eric was born in Wichita, Kansas. His parents were both born in Colorado but while he was working in the Air Force as a transport pilot, Wayne Harris held 11 different positions at six different bases from in Ohio, Michigan and New York. Plattsburgh, New York was last place the Harrises moved to before Wayne's forced retirement from the military in 1993 due to cutbacks. Eric lived in Plattsburgh, until the Harris family moved from New York to Littleton, Colorado in July 1993. Wayne took a job with Flight Safety Services Corporation in Englewood and Kathy got a job as a caterer. Eric went to Ken Caryl Middle School, where he met Dylan Klebold in the seventh or eigth grade. They became close friends and spent a lot of time together. When Eric started attending Columbine in he met Brooks Brown riding the school bus - their houses weren't far apart. Eric met Nate Dykeman in Spanish class, then introduced Nate to Dylan. The boys remained friends for years. During his freshman year, Eric met Tiffany Typher in German class and took her to the homecoming. It was their only date. Eric was arrested for breaking into a van but was released early due to how well he did in the juvenile diversion program he had to attend. That same year Eric was employed at Blackjack Pizza, a place where he would later purchase one of the guns used during the shootings from Mark Manes, a man whom fellow co-worker and Columbine graduate Philip Duran set them up with. With the weapons purchased, Eric along with Dylan made a video at Rampart Range with Mark Manes and a female friend of theirs. They (Eric, and Dylan) practiced firing the sawed off shotguns, using bowling pins and pine trees as targets.
One of Eric's aspirations was to join the Marines and he even took steps to apply, though his application was rejected shortly before the shooting, likely because he was taking the drug Luvox (Fluvoxamine maleate) at the time, an SSRI antidepressant he was taking in connection with anger management therapy he'd been in since mid-1998. It's been theorized that Luvox's side-effects contributed to what happened. However, friends of Eric's told reporters that they believed he had stopped taking the drug shortly before the rampage. If so, this could have triggered an even more violent reaction as stopping any anti-depressant suddenly can enhance the negative side-effects.
Eric never got the message that he'd been denied as the recruiting officer was unable to reach Eric to let him know before the shootings occurred. However, Eric's mother had mentioned the drug while Eric was meeting with the recruiter so it's possible he may have assumed his chances were blown as he had not reported that he was taking an anti-depressant when he applied. Eric was also very active on the internet. He had his computers set up on a network to play Doom together online and it was Eric who had the stronger web presence. Eric's (aka REB, Rebel, Rebdoomer, Rebdomine and probably more) webpages have gotten much media hype. Eric chatted on WBS, Web Broadcasting System, a site which has since been swallowed by the GO network. Other websites Eric made included Jo Mamma (a page of 'jo mamma' jokes that aren't supposed to be funny, created by REB [Eric], VoDKa [Dylan] and KiBBz [Zack Heckler]), another WBS page of KMFDM lyrics and the more explicit and threatening website on AOL that contained the spew regarding Brooks Brown and shooting up Littleton. The "graphic content" from Eric's websites that was spoken of so fearfully by the media at the time referred primarily to images of characters straight from Doom II's screen. The horned guy is one of the Doom II bosses/gods. Eric kept a lot of Doom and Quake graphics on his AOL website as well but far scarier than Eric's gaming sites were the rants he dumped onto his homepage about hating the world at large: Everyone in it, not just jocks or blacks or whites or rich people... Everyone.
In the months prior to the shootings, Eric recorded on video quite a bit about what he wanted to do to his school and the people in it, via the outlet of video tapes (including the Hitmen for Hire and Basement videos), school reports, and the media-hyped journals and diaries, wherein Eric detailed out floorplans of Columbine and noted when the lunch room was most crowded. In the videos he shot in his basement bedroom (wherein he showed off the way his weapons fit under his trenchcoats) he went off about the 'stuck up bitches' he went to school with,
Eric died in the library from self-inflicted head wound: His family moved from Littleton not long after the shootings, for obvious reasons. In the interest of trying to reforge their lives, they appreciate the thoughts of well-wishers but don't want to be contacted by anyone about Columbine. Eric was eighteen years old at the time of his death. It is ironic how he is more celebrated and loved and accepted in death than he ever was in life. It is a celebration and love and acceptance that he worked so hard to achieve while living in his eighteen years of life.
