Neil Gardner

Who is Neil Gardner?

Neil Garner was a seasoned Sheriff's Deputy assigned to Columbine High School as the school's Resource Officer (SRO) on 11-9-1997. Gardner also coached girls' softball at Columbine. He was employed as a Sheriff's Deputy under Ronald Beckham, John Stone, Russ Cook, and Ted Mink. After the Columbine shooting (1999), he was awarded the Medal for Valor -- the most honored award given by the Sheriff's Office. Gardner retired from law enforcement on December 27, 2006.

Neil Gardner was awarded the Medal for Valor

Gardner was a certified and experienced Sheriff's Deputy who was highly praised from the start of his career, which began in 1984. He was an excellent Deputy and was well-liked by everyone who knew him, including his co-workers, superiors, and the students and staff at Columbine High School. He performed exceptionally well under pressure and was great with people. One time, he helped a 90-year-old woman living alone in the mountains secure her home and followed up to see how she was doing. Gardner loved people, and the SRO position at Columbine was a perfect fit.

From the start of his career, Gardner was commended for his people skills, specifically his ability to create resolution and de-escalate situations with citizens. He was always a calm voice of reason in some of the most intense situations, a team player, and aware of how his actions affected others.

Neil Gardner earned plenty of praise

Gardner's experience as a Deputy

1984

Gardner began his career in law enforcement as a patrolman for the city of Aurora in 1984. Several months later, he moved to Jefferson County.

1988

In 1988, Gardner moved to detentions.

1992

In 1992, Gardner worked as a patrolman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. He also expressed interest in becoming a school resource officer (SRO) should the program become available in his area.

This same year, Gardner responded to a situation where a suicidal man fired at Gardner, but Gardner did not return fire. The man was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Gardner's supervisor said he "handled himself and did a good job helping maintain and control the situation," which was typical praise he received from his superiors throughout his career.

1994

In 1994, Gardner got into the Field Training Instructors (FTI) program. This experience greatly improved his performance as a Deputy.

One of his performance reviews from 1994 states:

"Maintains calm and self-control in all situations. Quickly restores order in each situation and takes command. Determines the best course of action and takes it. Willing to take well-calculated risks. Accepts the responsibility and subsequent consequences for decisions. Is open-minded and seeks constructive criticism."

All of his appraisal categories were rated in the "exceeds" or "distinguished performance" levels.

1996

In February 1996, Gardner met with a Sergeant about becoming a school resource officer and expressed an interest in community services.

When called to an apparent suicide in Genesee Park, he found a man had been shot in the stomach. All evidence suggested homicide. Although he hadn't yet joined the investigations unit at this time, he determined this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

1997

On November 9, 1997, Gardner officially became Columbine High School's resource officer (SRO) and was praised from the start.

Neil Gardner was praised as Columbines SRO

Neil Gardner was praised as Columbines SRO

Neil Gardner was praised as Columbines SRO

2001

On January 14, 2001, Gardner transferred to the Investigations Unit and was placed on the Crimes Against Children tam.

2002

On July 1, 2002, Gardner moved to the Detention Services Division, Court Security Unit, in the position of "Explosives Detection K-9 Handler." He also worked as a Juvenile Review Coordinator.

2006

On December 27, 2006, Neil Gardner retired from his career in law enforcement.

Gardner's missed handgun/shotgun qualifications

Per department policy, Gardner was required to go to the shooting range 4 times per year with his handgun, and once yearly with his shotgun, where he would be scored on his shooting ability. All of Gardner's missed qualifications were the result of him not going to the range. He never failed a qualifications test.

The first time Gardner failed to qualify with his handgun was the third quarter of 1993.

The first time Gardner missed his yearly shotgun qualification was in 1995.

As of 11-10-1998, Gardner had missed 2 handgun qualifications in the last 12 months and had not qualified with his shotgun since March 1997. However, when he did go to the range, he shot at the Sharpshooter level.

Neil Gardner missed qualifications, but shot at the Sharpshooter level

In 1999, Gardner missed three quarterly handgun qualifications, including the last quarter. As of November 1999, he had not qualified with his shotgun in 2 years. He went a total of three years without qualifying with his shotgun.

As of 2005, Gardner had been consistently qualifying with his handgun and shotgun.

Neil Gardner qualified in the expert category

Gardner exchanged fire with a suspect on 4-20-99

Info will go here.

Neil Gardner's interviews

Main interview [11k, pp.8067-8076]

You can read his interview here.

Neil Gardner interview transcript [p.11258-11251]

On this page you can read or download the interview transcript, and listen to or download the audio.

Neil Gardner's ballistics information

[Evidence, volume II, p.12174, 12203]

Shots fired by Neil Gardner

"The fired bullets in items #184, 315, 428, and 508 and the fired cartridge case in item #228 were all microscopically identified as having been fired by item #47 (Sig Sauer 45 auto caliber semi-automatic pistol)."

Handwritten next to this paragraph is: "Gardner"

Source: (Evidence, volume II, p.12203)

Gardner's 5 rounds - CBI/JCSO evidence # & description

CBI Item #184/JCSO #2238 - "One fired copper jacketed bullet."

CBI Item #228/JCSO #2720 - "Eight fired Speer 45 auto caliber cartridge cases."

CBI Item #315/JCSO #940 - "One fired 45 caliber bullet."

CBI Item #428/JCSO #746 - "One fired copper jacketed bullet."

CBI Item #508/JCSO #998 - "One fired copper jacketed bullet."

Where were Gardner's fired rounds recovered?

3 in the library (2 fired bullets; 1 live round)

1 in the West main doors (Source needed)

Neil Gardner admitted possibly firing into the library

El Paso, Case Core, p.44 Neil Gardner

• 
• 
• 
• 
  Neil Gardner admits to El Paso he may have fired into the library
• 

Discrepancies in Gardner's stories

There are several big problems with Neil Gardner's story. A big one is that the timeline doesn't match. He was in Clement Park at the smoker's pit when Jay Gallentine called him on the radio, telling him he was needed at the school. A few seconds later, he got the call from Jefferson County about a female down in the parking lot. As he pulled into Columbine's parking lot, he got Peter Horvath's call over the radio that he was needed because there was a shooter in the school.

When Gardner arrived, the library windows had already been shot out. This means the shooters entered the library way before the official timeline states.

The timeline issues will be posted here later.

The other issues with Gardner are that 3 of his bullets were found in the library. Two fired bullets, one on the floor by Steven Curnow and another in the wall above a window on the far side. The third was a live round ejected from the chamber of his weapon.

Gardner lied and said he has no idea how a live round became missing from his magazine.

He also lied and said he made his handgun qualification in February. In fact, he missed 2 quarterly qualifications that year (1999), 6 more recently, and 9 total in his career. He said he had only ever missed a couple qualifications total in his career, but it was a habitual problem. He went without qualifying with his shotgun for three years. It was against department policy for Gardner to be carrying his duty weapon at Columbine that day. They let him slide for years despite his admission that he was a procrastinator and never bothered to go to the range to qualify.

He also said he thought he hit a suspect with a kevlar vest. Well, his mushroomed bullet found in front of the West doors supports this. Bullets don't mushroom and fall to the floor when they hit flesh. They embed themselves into the flesh. Or, they fragment. Bullets also don't mushroom when they hit random hard objects unless it's hard enough to be bullet-resistant, like kevlar, a bulletproof vest. That bullet he fired hit something bulletproof. If his bullet hit something bulletproof (and it did), and he says he hit the shooter, the only logical conclusion is the shooter was wearing a bulletproof vest.

Gardner describes a suspect that matches more of Dylan's description than Eric, yet they told him he shot at Eric and he continued using Eric's name, but that's not who he described seeing.

Gardner also said he never fired into the library, but he actually admitted to "possibly" firing into the library windows to El Paso when they did their independent investigation into Danny R's death. We know he fired into the library. Ballistics don't lie.

Points here about Gardner saying he knew Eric, didn't know Eric, didn't know about the bombs, was never told, then the video where he admits he was told.

The discrepancies in Gardner's stories don't match his personality, reputation, or lifelong work ethic working as a Sheriff's Deputy. One can only conclude that he was coerced into changing his story to fit someone else's narrative.

This page is a work in progress!