Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was one of the survivors of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, died over the weekend.
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According to CBS News, Hochhalter was a junior at Columbine High School when the infamous massacre occurred. She was shot in the chest and spinal cord while in the school’s cafeteria.
Moments after the shooting started, Hochhalter felt one of the bullets hit her in the back. However, when she tried to run away, her legs wouldn’t move. Although a friend managed to drag her away, she was hit in the lungs by another bullet.
After her friend got her outside the building, Hochhalter bled and struggled to breathe on the ground for 45 minutes. After being rushed to a nearby hospital, she underwent a four-hour-long surgery. She was left paralyzed.
During the deadly incident, the shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 classmates and a teacher before they killed themselves. Hochhalter was one of 23 people injured.
Unfortunately for Hochhalter, the tragedy was far from over. Less than six months after the shooting, her mother, Carla, committed suicide. Carla, who struggled mentally before the massacre, went to a local pawn shop, purchased a gun, and shot herself with it.
Anne Marie Hochhalter Never Considered Herself A Columbine High School Shooting Victim
Sue Townsend, who lost her stepdaughter, Lauren, in the shooting, considered Hochhalter a second daughter following the tragedy. “She never wanted to be called a victim,” Townsend told the Denver Gazette. “She considered herself a survivor.
Frank De Angelis, who was the principal at Columbine High School during the massacre, revealed Hochhalter died of natural causes. Hochhalter spent nearly 26 years in a wheelchair.
“She was a pillar of strength for me and so many others,” De Angelis shared in a statement. “She was an inspiration and exemplified never giving up.”
Despite what she endured, Hochhalter publicly forgave Klebold’s mother, Sue, after she released her tell-all book.
In a post on Facebook, Hochhalter reflected on the letter Sue and her husband, Tom Klebold, wrote her after the school shooting. The book’s proceeds went towards helping those with mental illness, which Hochhalter appreciated. “It means a lot to me that you wouldn’t keep those proceeds for yourself,” she wrote. “But to help others that suffer from mental illness.”
“I have no ill-will towards you,” Hochhalter wrote directly at Sue. “Just as I wouldn’t want to be judged by the sins of my family members, I hold you in that same regard. It’s been a rough road for me, with many medical issues because of my spinal cord injury and intense nerve pain, but I choose not to be bitter towards you.
“A good friend once told me, ‘Bitterness is like swallowing a poison pill and expecting the other person to die.’ It only harms yourself. I have forgiven you and only wish you the best.”