The Young, Innocent Lives That Were Lost

LITTLETON, Colo. - One minute, it was the daily routine of high school.

The short kid avoided the crowd so he could get to class without getting bumped around. The tall blond girl sat in trigonometry, breezing through a test. A bubbly girl, munching a sandwich, waved to a friend and said, "Bye, sweetie!"

The next minute, they were dying as two gunmen rampaged through the school.

Their friends were left to describe not just the final moments of their lives, but what kind of people they were.

Isaiah Shoels

-- Isaiah Shoels had faced trouble before, battling through two heart operations and coping with the fact that, at about 5 feet tall, he was always going to be just about the shortest kid in the hallway at Columbine High School.

His father, Michael Shoels, said Isaiah's dream was to be a music-company executive. He was 18 years old and ready to launch his career.

Isaiah was shot once in the head.

"He was a little guy and he got along with everyone," said Ashley Prinzi, 15.

Prinzi said she talked to Shoels about 20 minutes before he was killed. He was heading to his locker and then to lunch. He had decided to take a detour, though, because, at his size, he didn't want to get caught in the crush of students who pack the hallways at lunchtime.

"He was laughing. . . . He didn't want to get trampled in the hallway."

Shoels was black. Although witnesses said the killers were gunning for minorities, District Attorney Dave Thomas said there was no evidence to support that.

Shoels' father said today that he now agonizes remembering how his son, as well as his two other children, had told him about the so-called Trench Coat Mafia and how they taunted him and his siblings.

"By us being new in this neighborhood, I thought they were just feeling inferior, but that wasn't the situation. . . . I should have listened to my son and my children," he said.

Cassie Bernal

-- Cassie Bernal was the kind of girl who gets noticed in a high-school hallway anywhere in America. She was 5 feet 8 inches tall, with blond hair that hung past her waist.

One of the features her friends remember the most was "her beautiful smile," but they noted that her beauty had depth.

"She was a beautiful, strong Christian," said Jill Stevenson, 16, a sophomore at nearby Dakota Ridge High School and a friend of Bernal at the church they attended, West Bowles Community Church.

Stevenson said life wasn't easy for Bernal. She came from what she called "a broken background" and had struggled with the challenges of teenage life.

Craig Nason, 17, a junior, has an image frozen in his mind of Bernal in trignometry class Tuesday morning, just before she was slain. "We were taking a test," he recalled. "I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but she was zipping through."

John Tomlin

-- John Tomlin, 16, liked to go four-wheeling in his beat-up Chevy pickup in the nearby Rocky Mountains. But he also worked after school at a local nursery and belonged to a church youth group.

Last year, he went on a missionary trip to Mexico with family and built a house for poor people. He planned to enlist in the Army.

"He was a great kid, really happy, going to school, getting good grades," said his father, John Tomlin. "He knew what he wanted to do. He had everything planned."

-- Rachel Scott, 17, a junior, "was the sweetest girl," said Breanna Cook, 17.

Caryn Slizeski, 16, said Scott was "smart, really cool, a strong person who had her own opinions." She had been very active in drama.

Scott's stepbrother, Craig Scott, 16, was in the library and survived the massacre.

Slizeski now has her frozen memory of Rachel Scott

Scott. "I saw her sitting inside of a door eating her lunch" just before the shooting.

"She said, `Bye, sweetie.' She called everybody sweetie."

The Rev. Paul Cercle, a minister from Rochester, Ind., said Scott, his granddaughter, was killed in the cafeteria as students stampeded toward the exits.

Other victims identified today:

-- Corey DePooter, 17: Loved to golf, hunt and fish. Former wrestler. Recently Corey DePooter

took maintenance job at a golf club to save up for a fishing boat with a friend. Good student. Hid under library table with friends as gunmen sprayed bullets at floor level.

-- Kelly Fleming, 16: Aspiring songwriter and author. Moved from Phoenix 18 months ago. Eager to get her driver's license and part-time job. Shot in the library.

-- Matthew Kechter, 16: A junior, had hoped to start for the football team. Maintained A average. Shot in library after he tried to reach friends hiding in adjacent video room. Daniel Mauser

-- Daniel Mauser, 15: A sophomore, excelled in math and science, and earned straight A's. Ran cross country and joined debate team. Recently returned from two-week trip to Paris with French club.

-- William "Dave" Sanders, 47: Computer and business teacher for 24 years. Coached girls' basketball and softball. Married with at least two daughters and five grandchildren. Shot while directing students down hallway to safety.

Lauren Townsend

-- Lauren Townsend, 18: Was captain of girls' varsity volleyball team, coached by her mother. Member of the National Honor Society and was candidate for valedictorian. Wanted to major in biology in college.

-- Steven Curnow, age unknown.

-- Daniel Rohrbough, age unknown.

-- Kyle Velasquez, age unknown.