Lock and Load High School

[mattd]

DENVER (AP) - The family of slain Columbine student Daniel Rohrbough claims 
a Denver police officer killed the boy as he fled the massacre inside the 
school.
A motion filed Wednesday in federal court said Sgt. Dan O'Shea, a member of 
the SWAT team during the April 20, 1999, shootings, was identified through 
testimony by a school administrator, Celine Marquez, who said O'Shea told 
her two days after the shooting that he feared he may have shot an innocent 
student.
The motion asks a judge to reconsider the dismissal of a lawsuit brought 
against the Jefferson County school district and sheriff's office.
Brian Rohrbough has long claimed his son was shot by a lawman rather than 
by one of the student gunmen firing from inside the school because of the 
angle of his fatal chest wound. In all, 12 students and one teacher at 
Columbine High School in Littleton, a Denver suburb, were killed before 
attackers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed themselves.
According to the motion, O'Shea's handwritten police report stated he shot 
a 9 mm machine gun from the base of a hill on which Rohrbough was shot and 
killed. Rohrbough's wounds were consistent with the student facing downhill 
and O'Shea firing from below, the motion said.
The court papers said Marquez was visiting Westridge Elementary School on 
April 22, 1999, when she encountered O'Shea, whose daughter attended 
preschool at Westridge.
According to the motion, Marquez thanked O'Shea for responding to the 
attack at Columbine. O'Shea broke down crying, saying he had thought he 
might have mistakenly shot an innocent student, the motion said. He told 
her he was relieved to learn that ballistics tests showed none of the 
victims had been struck by police bullets, it said.
Lawyer Barry Arrington, who represents the Rohrboughs, said Wednesday that 
in fact, ballistics tests on the bullets had not been started when O'Shea 
spoke to Marquez. "Someone told Sgt. O'Shea a grievous lie," he said.
O'Shea could not be reached for comment Wednesday, the Rocky Mountain News 
and The Denver Post reported. Denver Deputy Police Chief Dave Abrams said 
Wednesday that he was unaware of the accusation against O'Shea.
"I think it's unlikely," he said. "I would seriously doubt it."
The motion also accuses Sheriff John Stone and his department of making 29 
"blatant, bald-faced lies" about the investigation, including initially 
identifying a bullet recovered from Rohrbough's body as one from Klebold's 
weapon.
Brian Rohrbough said he didn't know about Marquez's story until a few days 
before a federal judge dismissed all but one of the Columbine 
wrongful-death suits last month. After the ruling, he asked Marquez if she 
would give a statement.
Marquez said she frequently told the story of her meeting with O'Shea, and 
"I felt I was relaying a hero's story."
According to the motion, sheriff's deputy Jim Taylor said that a Denver 
police officer was near him in the lower student parking lot during the 
massacre and that he remembers hearing machine gun fire and seeing a boy, 
later identified as Daniel Rohrbough, get shot.