Dave Sanders

William David Sanders was born on October 22, 1951 in Eldorado, IL, and died on April 20, 1999 in a science storage room at Columbine High School at the age of 47. Dave was a beloved teacher and coach at Columbine High School for 25 years. Hired at 22, he taught business, computer classes, was a substitute science teacher , and coached girls' basketball and softball.

He left behind a wife, four children, and five grandchildren.

Dave Sanders' Funeral and Gravesite

Dave's family kept his burial private, but held an open funeral for him at Trinity Christian Center on April 26, 1999. His funeral was led by Trinity founder and senior pastor Billy Epperhart, who also led the services for Corey DePooter, Rachel Scott, and Steven Curnow.

The Shooting Begins

When the shooting began around 11:20 a.m., Mr. Sanders was in the teacher's lounge, which was connected to the cafeteria. He stepped outside briefly to see what was going on and ran back inside to warn students about the gunmen outside. After yelling at students to get out of the cafeteria, Sanders helped another teacher pull an injured Sean Graves into the doorway

Students pulled him into Doug Johnson's biology classroom

While the 911 operator knew about Dave's situation, police allegedly did not. SWAT officers Lt. Terry Manwaring and Capt. Vince DiManna told the Denver Post they were never told about Sanders and they didn't know there was a teacher bleeding to death in a classroom .

In Memoriam

After his death, a softball field was named after coach Sanders

Sanders was awarded the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage.

Autopsy Report

Sanders' autopsy report was written by Michael J. Doberson, M.D., Ph.D., a Forensic Pathologist and Corner/Medical Examiner for Arapahoe County on May 18, 1999. His autopsy states the following:

PATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSES

1. Perforating gunshot wound to the neck and head with:

• Entrance, left lower neck.
• Exit, right upper lip.
• Partial transection of the left internal carotid artery.
• Laceration of the tongue and avulsion of multiple teeth.
• Associated hemorrhages.

2. Perforating gunshot wound to the trunk with:

• Entrance, right upper back.
• Exit, right upper chest.
• Fracture of the right clavicle.
• Partial transection of the right subclavian vein.
• Associated hemorrhage.

OPINION

This 48-year old man sustained gunshot wounds at the high school in which he was a teacher. He died a short time later at the scene. His death is attributed to multiple vascular lacerations due to perforating gunshot wounds to the neck/head and trunk. Toxicology analysis of body fluids obtained at the time of autopsy were negative. In view of the scene and circumstances surrounding the death and autopsy findings, the manner of death is classified as homicide.

Encyclopedia notes: Although the autopsy states he was 48 years old, Sanders was 47 years, 5 months, 29 days old at the time of his death.

Lawsuits

The family of Dave Sanders filed a federal lawsuit against the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department alleging that they knew by 12:30 p.m. that both shooters were dead, which would have changed the way they were required to respond. Police and medical personnel were forced to wait outside, some of whom said they were threatened with being shot if they disobeyed orders. One officer did disobey orders to rescue severely wounded Mark Taylor.

According to the Sanders lawsuit, knowing the shooters were dead by 12:30 p.m. should have allowed police and medical teams to go into the school and save Sanders. By noon, they were aware he was wounded and knew his exact location. A teacher in the room, Ms. Miller, placed a dry erase board in the window that read "1 BLEEDING TO DEATH." Instead of being rescued, they let Sanders bled to death for hours. Although he had a pulse when he was finally found by SWAT, they made the tough decision to leave him and search for other survivors.

One of the most interesting allegations in the Sanders lawsuit was that a SWAT sharpshooter had Dylan Klebold in his sights, asked to take a head shot, and was told to stand down by his supervisor. Another allegation claims that the unnamed sharpshooter witnessed both Harris and Klebold die in the library, which means police knew the shooting was over hours before Sanders died and failed to rescue him.

It is known (with photographic evidence) that there were several sharpshooters stationed on nearby residential roofs who could see clearly into the library, specifically the area where Harris and Klebold died. Although some claim police and sharpshooters could not have had a clear sight into the library during the shooting, a crime scene photograph Brian Rohrbough presented during the Ireland lawsuit, taken the day of the shootings, proved that even law enforcement on the ground could see clearly into the library from the ground. This supports the allegations in the Sanders suit that the sharpshooter had the visibility he claimed.

Timeline

Below is a timeline of events related to Dave Sanders' actions the day of the shooting constructed based on witness testimony. Note that if the timeline doesn't match the official story, that's because the incident likely began at 11:15 a.m. and most of the first actions in the cafeteria were removed from the CCTV tape before being released to the public.

Summary of the timeline of events:

1. Sanders helps teacher Chris Redmerski pull Sean Graves into the doorway of the Northeast cafeteria door.
2. Sanders yells for everyone in the cafeteria to "get down."
3. Sanders runs from the teacher's lounge straight up the stairs from the cafeteria to the second level, telling the few students present to "get downstairs".
4. Sanders makes an immediate right to go down the library hallway, then turns back and runs down the stairs. The commotion starts at this point and Sanders yells at everyone to "get upstairs."
5. Sanders walks out of a cafeteria door and tells students to get inside the cafeteria. It is at this point where he was most likely shot by the bullet that entered his upper right trap and exited through his collarbone. Cameron Witt saw Sanders outside, on the ground, with a bloody shoulder at this point and multiple witnesses saw Sanders either get shot or holding his shoulder/arm as if he'd been injured at this point.
6. Sanders heads back up the stairs to the second level.
7. Reaching the top of the stairs, Sanders makes a slight right placing him in the hallway "T" where the library and eventually the West doors would be down the hall to his right and the East doors (main exit) would be down the hall to his left.
8. Sanders runs down the left portion of the hall toward the East exit, and as he runs, he pushes students toward the main East exit and tells them to keep running.
9. Multiple students note that Sanders is visibly wounded with a "shoulder wound" and bloody hands, but he has not yet been shot through the mouth.
10. Sanders rests against the wall by the East exit for a moment until something causes him to turn around and run back where he came from. Students noted at this time bullets were flying down the hall in that direction from the West end of the hall. By the time Sanders reaches the intersection where the stairwell is, he steps in front of teacher Theresa Miller and is struck from behind by a bullet that enters his upper left back and exits his upper right lip, and he falls to the ground just several feet from the top of the stairs near the East/West hallway.
11. Sanders crawls for a short distance and then teacher Rich Long assists Sanders in standing up and "shoulders" him into SCI-3, where teachers Doug Johnson and Theresa Miller help him into the classroom.
12. Sanders takes a couple of steps into the classroom and falls forward onto his face.

11:13 a.m.

--Sanders is in the teacher's lounge eating lunch with Chris Redmerski and Judy Greco.

11:15 a.m.

--After eating half her sandwich, Redmerski hears a series of three loud knocks on the faculty lounge window. Everyone ignores the first two knocks, and after the third, Redmerski heads out to tell the students to stop. First, she looks out the faculty lounge window and sees two students lying facing the window on their stomachs directly outside and below the window four feet apart and parallel to each other.

11:16 a.m.

--Redmerski walks to the Northwest cafeteria door, opens the door, and sees Sean Graves lying the ground. Graves tells her he can't feel his legs. Graves tells her he's been shot in the back by a kid in a trench coat up on the hill. Redmerski looks for wounds, but can't see any injuries and it takes her a bit to take him seriously since there is no gunfire happening at that time. Just as she starts to poke her head around the corner to look up the hill, she hears gunshots and realizes someone is shooting outside. She tells Graves she'll be right back, and goes back to the teacher's lounge.

Map of the teacher's lounge and Northwest cafeteria door.

11:17 a.m.

-Redmerski goes back into the faculty lounge and tells Sanders a student has been shot and is outside in danger and she can't move him.

--Greco goes for the phone.

--Sanders runs to the Northwest cafeteria door where Redmerski is tending to Sean Graves. Redmerski, who is now on her stomach holding Graves' hand, sees Sanders standing behind her with Greco. The teachers drag Graves closer to the door so that his head is in the doorway, but he's still mostly outside of the cafeteria.

--Jon Curtis comes to the door and Sanders leaves.

--Sanders walks to a different cafeteria door and yells at students to get inside the cafeteria, then he goes back to the teacher's lounge briefly.

--Sanders is then seen by Spanish teacher Kandice Sterling coming out of the teacher's lounge and "bolting" up the stairs to the second level. This event is what we see on the CCTV footage timestamped at 11:24 a.m. (11k, p.2484)

This event is also described by Kim Anderson, who saw Sanders run out of the teacher's lounge and yell at everyone to get down right as people moved to the windows to see what was happening outside. (11k, p.2326)

Did Sanders ran up the stairs twice?

There is a strong reason to believe Sanders ran up the stairs twice.

Cameron Witt was at the top of the stairs when some kids ran up and told him to get out because someone was shooting downstairs. He didn't listen, and then Dave Sanders came up the stairs yelling "get downstairs." Then Witt heard shots and Sanders ran around the corner of the stairs toward the library (to the right) and then quickly retreated and ran back down stairs.

At this point, there wasn't much commotion yet and Witt went downstairs to look through the window to see what was happening. As he was looking out the window, that's when the commotion started and Sanders started yelling at everyone to "get upstairs."

This is corroborated by Andrea Coe (11k, p.5853), who said Sanders was at the top of the stairs telling kids not to go down the library hallway, pushing them down the stairs.

Note: why don't we see kids coming back down the stairs on the CCTV footage?

Coe attempted to go down to the cafeteria and was pushed back up by a stampede while hearing shots fired behind her. Once up the stairs, she saw an explosion by SCI-8.

When Witt ran by the big windows to the East by the math and science wings, he saw Sanders on the ground with his arm all red. It should be noted that that is the area where other witnesses saw Sanders exit the cafeteria where he appeared to "jerk" as if he had been shot and when he came inside, other witnesses said he was holding his arm as if he was injured.

Mark Hengel also heard Sanders tell people to go downstairs and then to go upstairs. (11k, p.5899)

Annette Shinn also reported that Sanders told her to go downstairs and that Sanders was not injured at that time. (11k, p.5979)

It appears that Sanders did run up the stairs twice. He ran up the stairs, then ran down and went outside. He was shot through the upper right trap, and then he ran back up the stairs wounded, where he was seen coming up the stairs already bloody. From there, he ran down the East hall, where he pushed Jennifer Barnes toward the East exit, rested against the wall briefly, and retreated back to the top of the stairs. Sanders was shot a second time through the mouth as he ran toward the West exit from the East exit.

It seems that the footage of Sanders running up the stairs with a bloody right shoulder has been cut from the CCTV footage. It appears that the footage has been altered so that Sanders' first trip up the stairs where he is uninjured is shown in place of his second trip up the stairs, where he was visibly injured.

What time did Sanders run up the stairs?

Sanders is seen running up the stairs at 11:24 a.m. on the CCTV footage, but based on witness statements, it's more likely that he ran up the stairs closer to 11:17 a.m., which is interesting because that's 7 minutes earlier than the CCTV timestamp. However, it should be noted that the events in the CCTV footage appear to be the same series of events that witnesses reported happening approximately eight minutes prior. What a coincidence that there happen to be 8 minutes of missing footage from the tape that cuts out at exactly the minute the teachers began running around the cafeteria and tending to Sean Graves (11:14 a.m.), which would have been seen on the on one of the cameras had the tape not been cut.

11:xx a.m.

----Sanders is seen running down the South main hall moving in the direction of the main East exit. He was already wounded and had bloody hands, but was not yet wounded through the mouth. Jennifer Barnes heard shots (11k, p.2427)

11:xx a.m.

Before the mass exodus of students headed up the stairs to the second level, Frank Petersen, SCI-2 teacher, walked over to the stairs from his science class and didn't hear anything. He said some kids were coming up the stairs quickly, but not at an alarming rate. Then he heard a barrage of gunfire and saw teacher Rich Long crouched over with someone on the floor next to him. Long yelled at Petersen to get help. Petersen wasn't sure if the person on the floor next to Long was Sanders. However, it's likely the person was Sanders because that is the same area where Long went to assist Sanders after he had fallen from being shot through the upper left back and out through his upper right lip.