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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1999)
Page A6 April 28, 1999 <Fk?v |)o rtlan b (ßbam ier Colorado Girlfriend President Gets 12 Years for Robberies May Have Had Guns to thank my parents and friends for still continuing to support me. I’m just really sorry for what I've done. Thank you.” Curtis wanted to say more but was too emotional, said his attorney, Larry Matasar. Curtis’ motivation for the robberies remains a mystery. “ I d o n ’t know the answ er,” M atasar said. “ I wish I knew the answ er.” The plea ends a case that has grabbed national attention for the past year. Four Grant students and two other friends _ most from afflu ent families _ participated in a total o f 20 violent robberies. The case generated further outcry after Curtis, running from the law, partied with 37 fellow seniors in Mazatlan. Mexico. No one told police until they re turned to Portland. Police arrested an accom plice, Ethan Throw er, at G rant High on A pril 16, 1998. H ow ever, Curtis ©AP W ire S ervice B y S teven K. P aulson © T he A ssociated P ress LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — The 18-year-old girlfrien d o fC o l- um bine H igh S chool gunm an Dylan Klebold apparently bought at least two o f the weapons used in the attack at a D enver-area gun show, authorities said. Investigators also were check ing a rep o rt from a C olorado Springs gun dealer that the other gunman, Eric H arris, was among five teens who tried to buy a m a chine gun and another weapon last month. The Denver Post reported to day that investigators believe the girlfriend, Robyn K. A nderson, bought three weapons not long after her 18th birthday in N ovem ber. The Denver Rocky Mountain News said she was believed to have bought two guns. Harris, 18, and Klebold, 17, com m itted suicide after bursting into Columbine High School with guns and bombs a week ago today, killing 12 fellow students and one teacher. Four guns were found in the school. Ms. Anderson was questioned Monday and authorities describe her as a witness, not a suspect. District Attorney Dave Thomas said she was cooperating with investigators. Prosecutors said the weapons may have been purchased legally. “We think three o f them were p ro v id ed by the g irlfrie n d o f Klebold,” Mark Paulter, a Jefferson County chief district attorney, told the Post. “She bought them because she was older. She was 18 at the time. She bought them in N ovem ber or December. “W e’re not sure she committed a crime under Colorado statute. If you provide a handgun to a person under 18, that’s a violation of the statute. If you provide a shotgun or a rifle, that’s not a violation.” The operator o f the Tanner Gun Show, which holds shows in the Denver area several tim es a year, said the U S. Bureau o f Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm s asked on M onday for a list o f all o f the show ’s exhibitors. Prosecutors think Ms. Ander son bought two shotguns and a ri fie. District Attorney Dave Thomas said p ro secutors are not sure w hat knowledge she had about how the guns would be used. But Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone acknowl edged it was possible that she did know how K lebold and H arris planned to use the guns. “She’s not going to use those for pheasant hunting,' ’ Stone told the News. A man who was at Ms. Anderson home declined to comment, saying the family was terrorized by report ers, the Post said. M eanw hile, M el B ern stein , owner o f Dragon Arms, a gun shop in Colorado Springs, told investi gators that four teen-age boys dressed in trench coats — includ ing Harris — and a young woman came to his store in early March. They tried to buy an M-60 m a chine gun and a pistol equipped w ith a silencer. He said he de clined to sell the guns to Harris because he was too young. When the young woman in the group tried to b u y the guns, saying she was 18, he escorted them from the store. Bernstein said the inc ident was cap tured on a surveillance videotape that he turned over to federal authorities. “They w ere real m opey, like punk kids w ith the m akeup on, like punk rockers," Bernstein said. “ To me, it was ju st another bunch o f kids who w ished they could ow n everything they see on the wall here. This is like Toys R Us to them .” Bernstein said Harris “was doing all the talking.” Investigators still believe that someone other than Klebold and Harris was aware o f their plans in the days and weeks leading up to the attack. “ T h ere’s a lot o f m unitions there,” Stone said. “ Either some body else brought it in or they brought it in and stored it. ... It’s hard to get that in under your rain coat and not be noticed.” Stone said three boys who were arrested near Columbine on the day o f the attack have not been cleared in the case. “I’m suspicious o f their story,” Stone said. ’ ’They are not out o f the woods in this one yet.” Also M onday, authorities said Klebold and Harris had aimed for an even bigger bloodbath, plotting to kill hundreds o f students, and then to hijack a plane and crash it into New York City. Investigators cited a diary they found that was kept by Harris. The attack’s bold, bizarre na ture led to speculation that the gun men might have been taking drugs, but toxicology tests revealed no drugs or alcohol in their bodies, the county coroner’s office said. “ It makes it a little more frighten ing to me that they were o f sound mind and not under the influence of alcohol and drugs,” Thomas told MSNBC. Colum bine’s campus remained closed to everyone except bomb squads and investigators. Colum bine teachers reported for duty to day at n earb y C h a tfie ld H igh S chool, w here arm ed s h e r if f s deputies and parents had been as s ig n e d to g u a rd th e d o o rs. Colum bine’s students will begin classes at Chatfield on Thursday. Teachers haven’t been allowed to pick up their books and other belongings since the bloodshed at Columbine. “I f they need anything and we can find it, we’ll get it for them,” sheriff s Sgt. Jim Parr said Monday. “But I think they’re going to be operating on a shoestring for a while.” C h a tfie ld P rin c ip a l S a lly Blanchard said her staff would try to make Columbine teachers feel welcome on campus as they pre pare their lessons in hopes o f fin ishing out the school year. “We want them to feel honored. We want them to feel safe,” she said. Funerals were held Monday for three students and Dave Sanders, the only teacher killed in the rampage. The emotionally exhausted commu nity faced two more funerals today and planned a moment of silence at 11:21 a.m., the time the attack began a week ago. Mourners, including students by the hundreds, turned out Monday to remember Lauren Townsend, an 18-year-old honor student and cap tain o f the girls’ volleyball team; Daniel Rohrbough, the 15-year-old boy shot while holding an exit door open for fleeing students; and Cassie Bemall, the 17-year-oldgirl who professed her love o f God just before she was shot. “Cassie died a martyr’s death,” PastorGeorge Kirsten told mourners. “She went to the martyrs ’ hall of fame. ” PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ The former student body president o f Grant High School, who fled rob bery charges and spent three months on the run in M exico and the South west, will spend the next 12 years in prison. Thomas G. C urtis, 19, pleaded guilty W ednesday in M ultnom ah County Circuit C ourt to 19 counts o f robbery and attem pted robbery in exchange for the sentence. W ith time o ff for good behavior, he could serve 11 years and one month. He also m ust pay more than $8,000 in restitution. Curtis apologized but offered no explanation for what he did. “I am truly sorry for what I’ve done, and I never intended to hurt a n y o n e,” he told Judge L inda Bergman. "And I hope we can all move on from this. And I would like slip p e d aw ay, sh ow ing up in M exico before m oving to a Phoe nix suburb and w orking at a cafe. W hen his case appeared on T V ’s “ A m erica’s M ost W anted,” he fled to Las Vegas, where he was ar rested July 29. Norm Frink, a chief deputy dis trict attorney, said the sentences for the six friends, ranging from 2'/: years for one getaway driver to Curtis’ 12 years, reflected their roles. “ In my mind, they’ve been appro priately punished,” Frink said. But Joe Kassab, an owner o f a jewelry store that Curtis robbed with Thrower, thinks Curtis should have been sentenced to 20 years _ about one year for each robbery he com mitted. When Kassab thinks ofCurtis, it ’ s w ith the memory o f a gun pointed in his face and a masked robber yell ing, “Back off! Back off!” “I hope he rots in jail, actually,” Kassab said. “I don’t feel for him.” Clinton Urges Gun Law Changes weeks. Sen. Dick Durbin o f Illi nois pronounced L ott’s decision “a breakthrough” tow ard passage o f legislation, and several advo cates o f tougher gun laws said they thought they could prevail. First at the White House, and then in the Capitol, the nation’s po litical leaders paused during the day to observe a moment o f silence for the victims o f the shooting ram page. It was a week ago that 12 students and a teacher died at the hands o f two heavily armed stu dents, who ended the carnage by turning their weapons on themselves. The brief silence since then was an interlude to the political jo ck eying that broke out Tuesday on an issue that had faded into the background in recent years. Re publicans, heavily funded by the N ational Rifle A ssociation, have By David Espo © The Associated Press W ASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Clinton pressed for new con trols on guns Tuesday, and top Republicans proposed a hard look at the nation’s violence-tinged cul ture as the two parties offered dif ferent responses to last w eek’s Colorado high school shootings. “ P e o p le ’s lives are at stake h ere,” C linton d eclared at the W hite House. He urged the GOP- controlled C ongress to raise from 18 to 21 the legal age for handgun possession and to hold negligent parents liable when their children use guns to com m it crim es. By d ay ’s end, Senate M ajority Leader Trent Lott, R-M iss., had agreed to give D em ocrats an op portunity for a debate and vote on firearms proposals in about two traditionally opposed gun control legislation. D em ocrats have shied away from forcing votes on the question in recent years, in part to spare mem bers o f their rank and file from W estern and Southern states from having to make po liti cally unpalatable choices. “ It is crim inal how easy it is for children in A m erica to obtain guns,” added first lady H illary Rodham Clinton, w eighing a Sen ate candidacy in New York. “ We as parents have a respon sibility to monitor what they watch, what they listen to and w hat they hold, not after the fact, but always. Our com m unities m ust be active in returning A m erica to a society based on values, m orals and disci pline. And most im portantly, we must stress faith in God and instill hope in our children.” Students Initially Think it’s Happening Again Bv A malie Y oung A ssociated P ress W riter SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) _ M inutes after gunmen opened fire in a C o lo ra d o h ig h sc h o o l, Thurston High School principal Larry Bentz broadcast the news over his school’s intercom: “ I’d rather they hear it from me than from rum ors,” he said. But still reeling from their own school ram page 11 months ear lier, several students m istakenly thought the nightm are was hap pening again at Thurston. They bolted for the door. "A w hole b u n ch o f p eople started to get scared and stuff. Some people started going toward the door thinking it was happening here,” said Thurston student W illie Kumle. “A girl that sits next to me started crying.” The Littleton, C olo., shooting has been a violent rem inder to this sm all town o f last M ay’s tragedy, when student Kip Kinkel alleg edly w alked into the school’s caf eteria and opened fire, killing two students and wounding more than 20. He is also accused o f fatally shooting his parents a day earlier. “ Everybody here kind o f really understands w hat th ey ’re going through,” said Tony Case, who was shot in the leg in the Spring- field shooting. “You know, I saw one student interview ed in Colorado who said she didn’t think it w ould happen there," he told The O regonian “ Everybody still thinks it c a n ’t happen to ’our sch o o l,’ until it happens.” 1 “ It’s creepy really,” said James Ready, 17, a junior at Thurston. “I honestly thought ours would be the last one, that people would have grown up by now .” Once again, journalists have de scended upon the high school, only to be vilified by students, parents and neighbors. Some threw rocks at the media, hurled obscenities and made obscene gestures. “Go aw ay!” one student yelled to reporters. “I t’s like you guys are here just to make m oney off w hat’s happening.!” He declined to give his name. Robert Ryker, whose two sons helped subdue the Thurston gun man, said he first learned o f the Colorado shooting from a reporter who called his home. “ I went up to the high school right away just to warn my kids about the reporters who would be all over the high school,” he told The Register-Guard. “But when I got there, they (the reporters) were already there.” Ryker said both his sons were disturbed by the latest shooting. “ It’s very tragic," he said. “We were hoping that Thurston would have been the last. But then, being realistic, v'e knew it probably w ouldn’t be the last.” T he d e ja vu has hit h ard throughout the community. V icki Simpson, whose daugh ter Kristy W hittington, 17, is a senior at Thurston, said she imme diately called the school to check on her daughter, who was shaken but fine. "It was like the whole thing started all over again,” she said. “T hey’re trying to put it behind them, but for some o f the kids, it’s like re-living it all over again.” After the initial news was broad cast over the intercom,* students were allow ed to go to a special room to watch CNN for the rest o f the day. “The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh God. not again,” ’ said Devon LaSalle, a 16-year-old sophomore. After realizing the violence was hundreds o f miles away, “ 1 kind o f had this sense o f relief," she said. “ I w asn’t really scared but I was nervous for the lives o f all th o se p e o p le ,” L a S a lle said. “W hen we see the news media, it’s kind o f like a flashback. We get the same feeling we had last year.” Knowing what will come in the next few days, the Springfield com munity is already reaching out to the Colorado town. Fire C hief Dennis Murphy, who heads an organization called Rib bon o f Promise that lobbies to keep firearms away from young people, said he will send a slew o f blue ribbons to the c ity ’s fire chief. Just two weeks ago, Murphy said he tried to take his campaign to Denver, only to be rebuffed. “They basically told me to go back to Oregon. Your message is not welcome here," Murphy told KGW -TV in Portland He said he will reach out again, despite the initial rejection. “Make a resolve. Help us to turn this into a national campaign,” he said. “ Enough is enough is enough.” Just think; Your son is b rig h t, hea lth y a n d h e a d e d fo r college one day Yot love the direction your career has taken. You're doing a lot of the things you planned and even a few you didn't. Living life to the fullest is easy when you have family behind you. American Family Mutual Insurance. Call and talk to one of our helpful, friendly agents. 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