“Dan Got Hit”: The Death Of Daniel Rohrbough
Daniel Mauser Memorial WebsiteDaniel Rohrbough in an undated school photo.
On the morning of April 20, 1999, 15-year-old Daniel Rohrbough happened to cross paths with his mother in the kitchen. That didn’t usually happen — Daniel normally left earlier for school with his sister. But that morning, they had time to chat and his mother told him she loved him as they said goodbye. Sadly, that was the last time she’d ever see him alive.
Born on March 2, 1984, Rohrbough was a 15-year-old who enjoyed playing frisbee, biking, and hanging out with his friends, according to his obituary in The Denver Post. He also highly valued his family. Rohrbough spent every summer helping harvest wheat on his grandfather’s Kansas farm, and helped out with his family’s car and home stereo business.
“He was a good friend,” Rohrbough’s grandfather told The Denver Post.
Indeed, Rohrbough was with friends when the Columbine school shooting began. During lunch, Rohrbough headed outside with Lance Kirklin and Sean Graves to catch up. But they fatefully encountered Eric Harris, who aimed his carbine rifle at the three boys — and started to shoot at them.
Denver Public LibraryDaniel Rohrbough was killed at the bottom of these stairs. His body is just out of the frame of this photo.
Graves, who survived, recalled that he thought Harris was holding a paintball gun. He assumed it was part of a class prank. Then, Rohrbough was shot.
“Dan got hit,” Graves recalled in an interview with Denver7 in 2024. “I’m looking back because I’m still confused on where the paint is, you know? I’m not seeing any paint hitting anything. No splatter, nothing. And I’m looking back and as I’m looking back, I was grazed in the neck.”
Rohrbough was killed. Graves was partially paralyzed. Kirklin, already badly injured, was shot in the face by Klebold (but survived). In the aftermath, Graves wrestled with torturous guilt about his friend’s final moments.
“Dan didn’t want to go with us,” he said. “And I actually really wanted him to come with me because, well, he was a funny kid. I was stressing out about this test, and I knew he’d get me laughing. So, I convinced him to go with us… I essentially asked him to walk to his death. And that weighed on me.”
