On April 20, 1999, interviews were conducted with deputies Neil Gardner, Paul Smoker, and George Gray regarding their involvement in the shooting as law enforcement officers.
Neil Gardner: #1 of 3
Neil Gardner was Columbine's School Resource Officer (SRO) and girls' softball coach. He was one of several officers who fired their weapons during the incident. Gardner allegedly engaged in a shootout with one of the suspects at the West doors while taking cover behind a white Blazer in the school's parking lot and claims that was the extent of his engagement. However, library ballistics evidence points to Gardner also chasing the suspects into the school.
Neil Gardner Controversies
Why was he in the library?
Gardner claimed he never entered the school and never fired into the library. However, according to the ballistics evidence, Gardner fired a few times into the library and cleared the chamber of his .45 Sig Sauer P220 pistol in the library - the live bullet was found on the floor and was traced to his weapon via extractor marks. It appears he was told to lie. When interviewed about the missing live round from one of his magazines, Gardner claimed he didn't know where it went.
Witnesses, including Jennifer Smull, said that Neil Gardner shot into the library from directly below the library and not from the parking lot as he claimed.
Another oddity is that all of Gardner’s shell casings were in a cluster in the middle of the parking lot, in a spot that makes it impossible for him to have fired those shots over the hood of the Blazer toward the West doors. His duty weapon ejected shells to the right, and they would have hit the windshield and rolled off the hood in some capacity. Instead, they were found far from the Blazer, deeper into the parking lot.
Gardner knew both suspects
Gardner initially claimed he had no idea who Harris or Klebold were and was never told Harris was making bombs. It was later revealed that police specifically told Gardner that Harris was detonating pipe bombs in the area and he knew who they both were. Gardner admitted on video that he knew they were making bombs, but police told him not to tell anyone.
Who did Gardner have a shootout with?
According to the official story, Gardner had a shootout with Eric Harris at the West doors. However, Gardner described the suspect as taller than Harris, wearing a dark colored hat backwards, a white t-shirt, and a blue flak jacket.
A blue vest with bullet holes and bullet fragments was found in a science room.
Gardner casually referred to this person as “Scott” during his interview, and the interviewer didn’t correct him. Did he mean Larry Scott Petty, who went by the name Scott? Or perhaps Scott Fuselier?
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