Columbine massacre survivors push ahead

updated 7:20 a.m. ET April 20, 2009

LITTLETON, Colo. - The "boy in the window" — who fell bloodied and paralyzed into the arms of rescuers during the horrifying Columbine High shooting rampage — is doing just fine.

Now 27, Patrick Ireland has regained mobility with few lingering effects from gunshot wounds to his head and leg a decade ago. He is married and works in the financial services industry. His mantra: "I choose to be a victor rather than a victim."

Like Ireland, many survivors of the April 20, 1999, massacre have moved on to careers in education, medicine, ministry, retail.

But emotional scars still can trigger anxiety, nightmares and deeply etched recollections of gunfire, blood and bodies.

Experience changes priorities
Some have written books; a few travel the world to share their experiences to help victims of violence.

"People have been able to have 10 years to reconcile what happened and see what fits in their life and who they are," said Kristi Mohrbacher of Littleton, who fled Columbine as the gunfire erupted. "It's kind of a part of who I am today. I think my priorities might be a little bit different if I hadn't had that experience."

Just after 11 a.m. on that day, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, stormed the suburban school, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding about two dozen. The massacre ended with the gunmen's suicides not quite an hour later.

Sean Graves saw the pair loading weapons in a parking lot and thought they were preparing a senior prank with paintball guns.

Graves, Lance Kirklin and Daniel Rohrbough were walking toward them for a better look when the gunmen opened fire, killing Rachel Scott and Rohrbough and critically wounding Anne Marie Hochhalter, Graves and Kirklin, among others.

Slideshow   Columbine remembered A look back at the April 20, 1999, shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. more photos

In the second-floor library, Ireland was about to finish some homework when he heard pipe bombs exploding in the hallway. Debris fell from the ceiling and a teacher shouted for students to take cover.

Laughing as they sprayed bullets
Klebold and Harris strode in, shouted for students to stand up, laughing and ridiculing classmates as they sprayed bullets.

Ireland was under a table with Dan Steepleton and Makai Hall when they were shot in the knees. Ireland was shot twice in the head and once in a leg, and lost consciousness.

The killers shot out a library window. Graves, lying partially paralyzed on a sidewalk below, worried that they would return. He smeared blood from his neck wound on his face and the ground to make it appear he was dead.

Harris and Klebold killed 10 students in the library before they left to reload, which gave some survivors a chance to flee. Steepleton and Hall tried to pull Ireland but couldn't move him far before they fled for safety.

Shortly before noon, the gunmen returned to the library and committed suicide.

Ed Andrieski / AP Patrick Ireland, a field director with a financial services company, poses for his picture at his office in Denver, Colo., on, Wednesday, April 15, 2009.

Ireland awoke some time later, his vision blurred. With fire alarms sounding and strobe lights flashing, the partially paralyzed teen began to push himself toward the bullet-shattered window.

Over the next three hours, he pulled his body along, lost and regained consciousness, then moved again through tables and chairs and past classmates' bodies. He figures he traveled about 50 feet to the window.

"I thought how much easier it would be just to give up, stay there and let somebody come get you or whatever would happen to you," Ireland said.

"But every time those thoughts came in my mind, I thought about all the people that I would be giving up on. ... It was really the friends and family I would be letting down that kept me going."

MORE FROM COLUMBINE: 10 YEARS LATER

Columbine: 10 Years Later Section Front

Video: Tragedy and heroism at Columbine   Video: Columbine students return as teachers Columbine memorial draws 1,000 Winfrey cancels Columbine anniversary episode 10 years on, Columbine's hold remains strong Columbine families recall loved ones Shoot first: Columbine transforms police tactics Newsweek: Two pastors haunted by Columbine Destined as a psychopath? Experts seek clues   Slideshow: 10 years later, Columbine remembered Columbine: 10 Years Later Section Front   Add Columbine: 10 Years Later headlines to your news reader: