U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno

Arrives in Colorado

    On April 21, a plane carrying U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno touched down in Colorado.

    In the hours following the shootings, Reno had contacted U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland to discuss making federal resources available for the Columbine investigation. On April 22, Reno met at Light of the World Church, which sits within five miles of Columbine High School, and received a briefing on the case.

    At the meeting with Reno were Strickland, Sheriff John P. Stone, Undersheriff John A. Dunaway, District Attorney Dave Thomas, State Attorney General Ken Salazar and Deputy Attorney General Don Quick, and representatives from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Unit, Littleton Fire Department, the FBI, ATF and other agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice.

    Dunaway and Kate Battan, lead investigator for the Columbine case, gave an overview of the investigation and response efforts and then answered questions. Reno later traveled to the county government campus to view the weapons and other pieces of evidence.

    Before leaving the church, however, Reno met with the families of the victims. She then drove to the 1st Judicial District Attorney's Building in Golden and met with about 300 representatives from the first-responder agencies.

    In a press conference that followed, Reno expressed her appreciation for the work the first responders had done and promised her support for the ongoing investigation. As a result,

    Some federal funds and personnel were made available. ATF and FBI investigators served on the multiagency Columbine Task Force, and the two organizations assisted with ballistics, videotape and other kinds of evidence analysis. The Colorado Attorney General’s Office provided an investigator.

    Since then, the FBI has worked with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and other jurisdictions in which multiple school homicides have taken place to gather information about those crimes. The data is being compiled to develop psychological profiles of school killers and help law-enforcement agencies refine their prevention and response tactics.