Kyle Velasquez, The First Columbine Victim Killed In The Library
Daniel Mauser Memorial WebsiteKyle Velasquez was the first of the Columbine victims to be shot in the library.
Many of the most horrific moments of the Columbine massacre happened in the high school’s library. And 16-year-old Kyle Velasquez was the very first of the Columbine shooting victims to die there.
Born on May 5, 1982, Velasquez had a stroke as a baby that left him mentally disabled. He also suffered from severe asthma. Though he eventually grew to be about six feet tall and weighed 230 pounds, his family fondly remembered him as a “gentle giant.” He’d only been at Columbine High School for a few months when the shooting occurred and — until quite recently — had not usually stayed at the school past lunchtime.
On April 20, 1999, Velasquez happened to be sitting at a computer table in the library. Though dozens of students were in the library at the time, Velasquez was the first one to be killed, possibly because he moved slower than his fellow classmates and had difficulty avoiding the gunshots.
Public DomainAn FBI diagram of the Columbine library, where many of the Columbine shooting victims lost their lives.
Klebold shot him in the head and back.
Before Velasquez’s death, he’d dreamed of following his father into the Navy. So Kyle Velasquez was buried with military honors at Fort Logan National Cemetery, in a casket draped with the American flag.
“I spent my entire life thinking I could keep him safe,” his mother, Phyllis, told the Rocky Mountain News in October 1999. “The one thing happened that I never imagined happening in an unimaginable place.”
