10/24/1999 – The Pain in Littleton Continues

A Message from Ann Blake-Tracy…

As if the people of Littleton have not suffered enough via the
Luvox-induced nightmare of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, now they must
go through their own SSRI-induced nightmares!!!! While in Littleton
last month I was told by one of the teachers at Columbine that close to
half of their students are now on something to cope with the
Luvox-induced tragedy carried out by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Oct. 21 we heard that a friend of the boys was arrested for making
threats about finishing the job for Eric and Dylan. Now we hear that
one of the mothers of a wounded student has committed one of the most
impulsive suicides I have heard of to date. The striking impulsive
compulsion to die coupled with the personality changes and loss of the
ability to cope, makes it clear to me that this is without doubt
another SSRI-induced tragedy!

How many more?

How many more?

How many more must die before the bloodshed ends? If you have been
afraid to speak out on this issue, PLEASE do not allow your silence to
contribute to these tragedies any longer!!! We must all warn all we
know that this is a clear and very present danger that MUST
end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ann Blake-Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org

——————————————————————–
Mom of Columbine Victim Kills Self

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) — The mother of a student wounded in the Columbine High
School massacre walked into a suburban pawn shop Friday, asked to see a
handgun, loaded it and killed herself with a shot to the head.

Carla June Hochhalter’s suicide occurred about six months after her
17-year-old daughter, Anne Marie, was critically wounded in the April
20 tragedy and left partially paralyzed.

It was not immediately known what other factors might have contributed
to Ms. Hochhalter’s suicide.

Ms. Hochhalter, 48, entered the Alpha Pawn Shop in Englewood Friday
morning and asked to see a handgun.

When a clerk turned around to fill out paperwork, Ms. Hochhalter loaded
the weapon with bullets that she brought, then fired one round that hit
the wall and a second round into her head, Englewood police spokeswoman
Leticia Castillo said.

The suicide was the latest shock for students and families in the
Columbine area. Jefferson County School District officials planned to
have grief counselors available this weekend to help deal with any
trauma.

A student was arrested this week for allegedly threatening “to finish
the job” begun by two student gunmen at Columbine.

In addition, CBS-TV was criticized by some in the community for
broadcasting a snippet of the security camera videotape that was taken
in the school cafeteria as the massacre unfolded.

Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, scattered gunfire and bombs at
the school near Englewood, killing 12 students and a teacher and
wounding about 26 others. Then they committed suicide.

Miss Hochhalter suffered injuries to her spinal cord, back and chest
when the gunmen fired at her in the parking lot. She moved her legs
for the first time last week.

Now a senior, she is taking a physics class at Columbine while a tutor
teaches the rest of her courses at home.

AP-NY-10-22-99 1947EDT
___________________________

Mom of CHS victim kills herself

By David Olinger
Denver Post Staff Writer

Oct. 22, 5:15 p.m. – Carla Hochhalter, the mother of a girl paralyzed
by the Columbine High shootings, walked into an Englewood pawn shop
Friday, asked to look at a revolver, loaded it and fatally shot
herself.

She died at Swedish Medical Center, minutes after paramedics carried
her into its emergency room.

Hochhalter, 48, killed herself at a time when her family seemed to be
battling back from a tragedy that had left her daughter Anne Marie
partially paralyzed by a bullet lodged in her back.

Anne Marie, a 17-year-old Columbine High senior, told friends a week
ago that she had managed to move her legs for the first time since
April 20. She and her parents had moved into a home renovated by
volunteers to accommodate her wheelchair. Dozens of students and
teachers at Leawood Elementary, where she once went to school, took
part in a Courage Walk last week to benefit the Hochhalters. Anne
Marie had thanked them all, adding bravely, “I think we’ll all
recover.”

Seven days later her mother walked into the Alpha Pawn Shop on South
Broadway and calmly asked to look at some handguns. A clerk showed her
three. She said she wanted to buy one, a .38 special revolver, and
asked to examine it.

While the clerk turned his attention to the paperwork associated with a
gun purchase, Carla Hochhalter surreptitiously loaded the revolver
with ammunition she had brought into the shop. She fired one bullet
into a store wall. She fired the next into her right temple.

At least half a dozen pawn shop employees and customers witnessed the
shooting.

“I’m stunned,” said Richard Castaldo, another of the students partially
paralyzed by the Columbine High gunmen. “My heart goes out to that
family. To go through what they this summer, and then this.”
Castaldo’s mother, Connie Michalik, said Carla Hochhalter suffered
terribly during the six months she watched her daughter fighting to
survive, then coping with life in a wheelchair.

“When this whole thing started, she was a different person. I saw her
slide downhill,” Michalik said. “You could see it was too much for
her. At the beginning, she was upset but a normal distraught person,
like we all were. But you’d look in her eyes and see she was … lost.
It didn’t seem like she was there any more. She was sweet and loving
and kind, but it was too much for her.”

Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone, whose department investigated the
Columbine High massacre, has watched deputies call it quits in the last
six months as the enduring stresses of this tragedy took their toll.
He expressed sympathy for the Hochhalters, saying, “I’d ask people to
pray for the family to help them get through this difficult part.”

Copyright 1999 The Denver Post.
____________________________

Columbine victim’s mother kills self in pawn shop

By Karen Abbott
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Carla Hochhalter, whose 17-year-old daughter was gravely wounded in the
Columbine High School shootings six months ago, took her own life
Friday.

Englewood police said Mrs. Hochhalter, 48, shot herself once in the
head at about 10 a.m. inside a South Broadway pawn shop where she had
just told a clerk she wanted to buy a gun.

“She was such a loving mother,” Connie Michalik, mother of wounded
Columbine student Rich Castaldo, said Friday.

The Hochhalter family, whose daughter, Anne Marie, suffered spinal cord
injuries and has been attending Columbine in a wheelchair this fall,
declined to comment.

Michalik said she and Mrs. Hochhalter spent many hours together at the
hospital in the weeks after their children were shot. Teenage gunmen
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire at the school, killing 12
students and a teacher and injuring more than 20 other people before
killing themselves.

“She was very sweet and loving and kind,” Michalik said. “This whole
thing just devastated her. This just destroyed her. It destroyed her.

“In my mind, I almost feel like Eric and Dylan killed her too.”

Police spokeswoman Letitia Castillo said the clerk at Alpha Pawn, 4155
S. Broadway in Englewood, handed Mrs. Hochhalter a .38 caliber handgun
at her request. While the clerk was doing the required background
check for the purchase, Castillo said, Mrs. Hochhalter apparently
loaded the gun with bullets she had brought with her.

Castillo said Mrs. Hochhalter fired one bullet into a wall of the store
before turning the gun on herself. No one else was injured.

Arapahoe County Coroner Dr. Michael Dobersen confirmed after an autopsy
Friday that Mrs. Hochhalter died of a gunshot wound to the head. The
death was classified as a suicide, he said.

Mrs. Hochhalter was pronounced dead at about 10:50 a.m. at Swedish
Medical Center, where Anne Marie underwent radical surgery and stayed
for weeks after she was shot twice as she ate lunch outside Columbine.

A Swedish spokeswoman said the hospital staff would not comment Friday.

Michalik said she had been concerned about Mrs. Hochhalter but never
imagined the depth of her depression.

“She was devastated, just like the rest of us,” Michalik said. “When it
first happened, she was just like any other parent.

October 22, 1999

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