Ceremony unveils Columbine massacre memorial

Hundreds of people gathered to dedicate a hillside memorial to the Columbine High School massacre victims.

The stone-walled oval in Clement Park is next to the suburban Denver school where two student gunmen killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves on April 20 1999.

During the ceremony, 213 doves were released and flew over the park.

Patrick Ireland, who was wounded in the attack, offered words of optimism. He was shot twice in the head and hung out of a library window while the tragedy unfolded, and has since had to relearn how to speak, walk and read.

“The world is inherently good… Columbine shouldn’t be a word associated with something bad, with what happened. It should be associated with hope,” Ireland said.

The outer wall is called the Ring of Healing. A smaller interior circle formed by a lower wall is called the Ring of Remembrance. Both are built of red stone.

Messages from the 13 victims’ immediate families are inscribed in the inner wall. One, by Brian Rohrbough in memory of his son Daniel, ties the 1999 shootings to abortion and moral decline, and accuses public officials of lies and cover-ups.

The memorial committee asked Rohrbough to soften the tone of his words, but he refused, and the organisers eventually accepted them as written.

“It was the way he wanted to remember his son,” Rufien said. “So yes, that’s the place for it, and that’s where it will be.”