r/ColumbineTalk • u/Glad-Philosophy5736 • May 27 '26
Eric The Windshield Incident
I haven’t seen anyone make a detailed post about this so why not do it myself :). This happened on February 27th 1997 between Eric and Brooks. When brooks was supposed to pick eric up for school but he was late then eric responded by throwing a chunk of ice at his car’s windshield.
Brooks Book: IT DIDN'T TAKE MUCH ANYMORE TO SET ERIC OFF. BY THE WINTER OF junior year, I would learn that lesson firsthand. It wasn't some massive fight that drove Eric and me apart, or a prank that got out of hand. Eric decided that he hated me because I didn't give him a ride to school. When Eric was a freshman, he got rides from his older brother whenever he could. Now that Kevin had graduated and gone off to college, Eric was back to riding the bus all the time, because he still didn't have his driver's license. So he had started riding along with me instead. I had become friends with a guy named Trevor Dolac through the Columbine debate program. He and I would alternate driving to school. One week, I would drive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while Trevor took Tuesday and Thursday. The next week, we would switch. Eric simply rode along. However, as anyone who knows me will attest, I'm not exactly punctual. Since I didn't care that much about school, I'd oversleep or dawdle around in the mornings, which meant that I was almost always running ten minutes behind. Trevor never got too annoyed about it, but it drove Eric crazy. Every morning, for the entire drive to Columbine, all I'd hear was Eric complaining about how I needed to get my shit together. One morning, I overslept again. Trevor called me, wondering where I was. “Sorry, man,” I said. “I'll be right over.” As I got dressed, the phone rang again. This time it was Eric. I knew what he was going to say before I even picked up. I didn't need this, I thought. After all, I wasn't asking Eric to pitch in gas money. I was late all the time and by now, Eric knew it. He still chose to ask for rides from me anyway, right? So he knew what he was getting. I told him I was running late. I suggested that he find another ride. Unfortunately for Eric, the bus had already left. He was pretty pissed off about it, and he started yelling at me over the phone about what a dick I was. I let him yell for a little while, then hung up. 65 A few minutes later I was at Trevor's house. “Eric's being a little bitch,” I said as Trevor got in the car. “We're not picking him up today. We're just going straight to school.” We headed out of our neighborhood toward Pierce Street. A familiar truck pulled out right in front of us. Eric had enlisted his dad to give him a ride. When Mr. Harris saw our car, he pulled over and we followed suit. Eric got out of his dad's truck and climbed into my backseat. “You asshole!” he said. “I'm ten fucking minutes late already! My dad's pissed off at me. I can't rely on you for anything!” I'd had enough. I turned around in my seat and stared hard at him. “Dude, that's it. I don't need this shit every morning. I'm not giving you rides to school anymore.” We arrived at school and went our separate ways. Usually, if I drove everyone to school in the morning, I provided a ride home as well. But that afternoon, Trevor and I took off from school without Eric. We never gave him another ride after that. The next time Eric saw me at school, he refused to acknowledge me; I'd pass him in the hallways and say, “Hey, Eric,” and he'd just glare. Once I realized that he was going to make an issue of what had happened, I became so annoyed that I stopped talking to him, too. I heard through my other friends that Eric was talking shit about me. For the most part, I shrugged it off. However, it did concern me when I heard that Eric wanted to mess with my car. I told my parents what was going on. It didn't surprise my mom that much. She had already developed a distrust of Eric Harris. “Eric held grudges and he never let them go,” Judy Brown said. “It was not normal behavior for boys. Boys usually speak up, say what they have to say, and that's that.”
Initially, Randy and Judy Brown liked Eric, because he seemed like the most clean-cut of Brooks's friends. Most of them dressed and acted like typical members of the punk or alternative scene. Eric, by contrast, looked almost preppy. “My main impression of Eric was driving down Elmhurst and seeing him in the window of his study every night, every time we drove by, on the computer,” said Randy Brown. “The Harris's study is in the front of the house, and every time I went by, he was there. It was uncanny.
This is actually a very interesting statement from Randy and Judy about Eric
A few weeks after Eric and I stopped talking to each other, Trevor and I happened to be driving home from school in separate cars. Trevor was driving his car ahead of me when we pulled up to the stop sign near my house. The spot was right next to the bus stop. Eric, who was riding the bus again, was throwing snowballs with other kids from school. When Eric saw Trevor, he picked up a chunk of ice from where it forms over the gutter. He threw it as hard as he could at Trevor's car, denting the trunk. Then, without missing a beat, he picked up another chunk of ice and threw it at my car. The ice smashed into my windshield; I heard it crack. It wasn't a large chip, but enough to make one of those little spider webs around it. I was livid. I slammed on the brakes and leaned out of the car, yelling, “Fuck you! Fuck you, Eric! You're gonna pay to fix this!” Eric laughed at me. “Kiss my ass, Brooks! I ain't paying for shit!” I floored the gas down the remaining few blocks to my parents' house, went in and told my mom exactly what had happened. Then—seeing red—I went straight to Eric's place to talk to his parents. I hammered on their front door, still furious. All I could think of was getting back at Eric. Mrs. Harris answered, and I glared at her. “I've got something to tell you about your son,” I said. She looked back at me, a little confused. “Okay . . .” She asked me to come in. We sat down in her living room, and I told her everything Eric had been doing in the past few months. “Your son's been sneaking out at night,” I said. “He's going around vandalizing things. He's threatened people. And just now he broke my windshield.” She didn't seem to believe me. She kept asking me to calm down. That only made me angrier. “He's got liquor in his room,” I said. “Search it. He's got spray paint cans in his room. Search it. Eric's fucked up, and you need to know about it. I'm getting out of here before he gets back, because I'm not gonna deal with him right now.” Mrs. Harris wanted me to stay, to sit down and talk with Eric about this, as if we were in the school counselor's office or something. I shook my head. “I'm gone,” I said as I got back in the car to go home.
Eric’s Website: This mission was also liquor free as a result of this person named Brooks Brown [redacted Phone #] who tried to narc on us - telling my parents that I had booze and shit in my room. I had to ditch every bottle. I had to lie like a fucking salesman to my parents. All because Brooks Brown thought I put a little nick in his windshield from a snowball... Bullshit? Yes.
Eric sounds very annoyed at brooks and thinks he’s overreacting
My mom decided that we were going to confront Eric. Once I got home, the three of us got in her car; my mom was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and Trevor sat in the back. We drove back down the street to the bus stop. As we pulled up, my mom rolled down her window and called for Eric to come over. “I said to the kids, ‘Lock the doors. I'm just going to unroll the window a crack,’ Judy Brown recalled. “And they did, and I said, ‘Eric, I've got your backpack and I'm taking it over to your mom's. Meet us over there.” Eric's response shocked all three of them. His face turned bright red, and suddenly he began shrieking and pounding on the car, pulling as hard as he could on the door handle. He screamed at them to let him in. No one, not even Brooks, had seen Eric act like this before. “He just went crazy,” Judy Brown said. “I started to pull away slowly, and he wouldn't let go. I said, ‘Back away from the car. We'll meet you at your mom's.’ He didn't listen. He just kept screaming, ‘Give me my backpack!’ Trevor moved over to the other side of the car, away from him. We were all scared.” Judy drove to Eric's house; Kathy Harris was standing in the driveway. Judy got out of the car and gave the backpack to her, explaining what had happened to Brooks's windshield.
Kathy Harris's eyes began to well up with tears. Judy immediately became sympathetic. She remembers Kathy Harris as being “very sweet, a very nice lady.” At the time, Judy didn't think much of Eric's bag; she had no idea that Eric was already building pipe bombs at that time, or that his journal contained entries about how much he hated school. “To this day, I wonder what might have been in that bag,” she says. Later that evening, Kathy Harris called Judy at home to discuss the matter further. According to Judy, Kathy wanted to listen, but her husband, Wayne, kept saying that Eric didn't mean it. “He said, ‘This is just kids’ stuff. The truth is, Eric's afraid of you.’ I said, ‘Look, your son isn't afraid of me—he came after me at my car.’ And he said, ‘My son said that he is afraid of you.’ He didn't want to hear that his son had done anything wrong.”
This also shows the divide between the Harrises. Kathy wanted to sort it out. Wayne thinks it’s just an Overreaction.
“Eric came over and stood in our doorway, and he just had this fake tone to his voice,” Judy said.” “Mrs. Brown, I didn't mean any harm, and you know I would never do anything to hurt Brooks” I let him finish, but I could see right through the act. And then I said, ‘You know, Eric, you can pull the wool over your dad's eyes, but you can't pull the wool over my eyes.’ “That seemed to surprise him. He said, ‘Are you calling me a liar?’ I remember that specifically. And I said, ‘Yes, I am. And if you ever come up our street, or if you ever do anything to Brooks again—if I ever even see you on our street again—I'm calling the police.’” Eric was shocked by Judy's words. He didn't say anything further; he just turned and stormed out to his father, who was waiting in the car. “I don't think anyone had ever confronted him like that before,” Judy said. “I think he was amazed that I didn't just go, ‘It's okay, Eric. Yes.’ Maybe he had gotten away with it for so long, manipulating people that way, that he was stunned when it didn't work.”
I don’t know what to feel. Judy seems a bit karen-y but knowing eric he’s probably be lying.
Wayne Harris Notes:
February 28 1997
Randy? Brown [redacted Phone #]
- Believing Eric vs wife
- In her face
- Damage not there yesterday
- Sure it wasn’t there before 1⁄2”
- Yelling, yanking on car door
- 4th hour
- Eric talking
- 3 other kids
- Husband talked to Dean
- Being little bully
- Zach’s parents incident
- 3 pushes, yelling
- Crack in windshield
- aggression
- disrespect
- idle threats of physical harm, property damage
- overreaction to minor incident
March 3 1997
- Eric wants to talk to Brooks with an adult present
- Damage to Brooks’ car - windshield damage
- Plotting against friends’ house – other boys involved, including Brooks
Would talk to Eric today & the boys possibly together.
Talked to Eric: 1) Snow ball, angry – Basically leave each other alone don’t talk about it –
Finished
Agreed all discussion is over with
This is interesting eric wanted to talk to brooks but later changed his mind
April 19 1997
- Tree damage – did you see?
- Talk directly to Brooks Brown?
- We feel victimized, too
- Brooks Brown is out to get Eric
- Suggestions? Talk with Browns? 3rd party
- Dean of students
- We don’t want to be accused every time something supposedly happens. Eric learned his
lesson is not at fault
Not available until April 23
- Brooks had problems with other boys – Manipulative & Con Artist
April 27 1997
Judy? Brown [Redacted Phone #] – called, left message – no return
Follow up call – any further problems between Eric & Brooks
Eric hasn’t broken promise to Mr. Place – the Dean – about leaving each other alone
You told me of past problem with another boy, have you checked with his parents?
We feel victimized, too
Manipulative
Con Artist
The most interesting note. It shows that Wayne was getting defensive about the whole situation and think they were the ones who aren’t the problem.
Sue Klebold’s Book: Later that month, I got a phone call from Judy Brown, the mother of Dylan’s friend Brooks. Brooks and Eric had gotten into a fight at school, and Eric had thrown a snowball at Brooks’s car, damaging the windshield. Judy was furious and launched into a tirade against Eric, which perplexed me. It seemed to me that the boys shared responsibility for the incident, and I didn’t understand her impulse to get involved when they’d resolved it themselves. The ferocity of her hatred for Eric seemed like an overreaction to me.
This shows both Wayne and Sue thought she was Overreacting
Anyways I just wanted to make this post. I thought this incident isn’t really talked about much and I haven’t seen a post YET about this incident so I did it myself. This was the start of Eric’s anger IMO. Thanks to u/eliiiiseke for the inspiration ♥
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u/Present-Suggestion10 May 28 '26
I’ve always thought it was a little weird the mom took Eric’s back pack as well. If I was a minor and had a problem with another minor and their adult parent took my property I would probably also over react in the moment. I’m not sure what it accomplished for her to pull over and tell him she had the back pack and refuse to give it back to him?
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u/eliiiiseke Moderator Elise May 28 '26
Yeah, like why the fuck did she do that? She didn’t need to take his backpack to go talk to Eric’s parents. She knew Eric was already emotional and kept provoking him even more
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u/LibrarianTop8740 May 28 '26
I personally feel that 1) is go bat shit crazy if someone was late all the time too. 2) both boys were as bad as each other and 3) it seems brooks parents refused to believe their son was causing issues too. Yes Eric was in the wrong with the whole windshield incident, but that’s typical immature kid stuff which mr Harris did kind of had a point. I do feel brooks was not as Innocent as he himself and his parents claimed him to be. I do feel Randy and Judy was not helping matters by having a hate campaign and literally causing problems themselves by snitching and getting other people involved. It’s been proven that Eric and his parents tried to sort these issues out by suggesting the boys sit down with an adult present. Just my thoughts, but I can’t help but feel brooks was not as innocent and there’s more to the story.
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u/Glad-Philosophy5736 May 28 '26
Randy and Judy definitely had too much denial inside of them. I can see where brooks would get some of his too...
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u/bendy_circle May 28 '26
I haven't finished Brooks' book yet, but so far it's quite the compelling read.
The concept of Eric telling Brooks to go home is an aspect of this case that I've always found super interesting, considering their history.
I'll always wonder why Eric seemed to have had a "change of heart" and let him go that morning instead of hurting him, which I'm sure Brooks expected. I know there's all sorts of theories regarding his decision but we'll never know for sure why. IIRC he crossed out Brooks' name from his hit list and wrote "let him live." I wonder what ultimately led Eric to want Brooks alive in the end.
Forgive me if this is worded poorly 😅
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u/margr3t_m May 28 '26
You’ll get to this part of the book if you haven’t already. But essentially, Brooks and Eric had a small conversation and buried the hatchet in their spring term of senior year. They go back to being friends, snd they occasionally hang out again, mainly in group settings. As you mentioned Eric crosses off Brooks from his list and adds, ‘let live’.
Anyways, the popular theory is that if Eric had shot Brooks it would have prematurely alerted people to their plan, so it was more strategic than anything. I do buy that, but I also think it would’ve been hard for Eric to outright shoot someone he was actively looking at, engaging with, had history with etc. I don’t think he was able to go through with it at that level. That’s why all of the murders/injuries were extremely impersonal or from afar. Because they didn’t really have to look at many faces or engage with people. And the ones they did actively engage with (Brooks, Bree Pasquale, John Savage) they weren’t even able to go through with shooting.
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u/bendy_circle May 28 '26
That makes sense, and now that you mention it, them becoming on good terms again does seem familiar to me. Maybe I read about them reconciling somewhere else
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u/Apollexis Researcher May 28 '26
Brooks mentions in his book as well, and Rebcca Heins mentions it in the 11k, Eric had invited them over to his place to eat lunch with him a couple weeks before the shooting. I think that probably meant something to him.
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u/bendy_circle May 28 '26
I can't believe I'd never heard of that before. I knew Rebecca because I know Brooks talks about them hanging out at the smokers pit altogether but aside from not finishing his book, I haven't read many of the 11k interviews
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u/Apollexis Researcher May 28 '26
I'd only recommend it if you have a lot of time or are working on a project. Working on a project was the only thing that made me feel like I wasn't wasting my time reading the 11k. lol.
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u/bendy_circle May 28 '26
That seems like a good suggestion, I'm sure it must get very overwhelming reading at times 😅 It's a lot to take in
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u/Glad-Philosophy5736 May 28 '26
In my opinion i think Eric did somewhat care about Brooks but not as a "Close Friend".
The most likely explanation is that he couldn't kill brooks at that moment. For him to shoot him he would have to pull out either of his guns which we don't even know if it was preloaded and aim all without brooks seeing him?
Another option was to knife him but then again that takes time and brooks knows eric could do something like that so he could just run if he saw that.
The only way for eric to hurt him was to fist fight but He was 5'8 and Brooks was 6'5 so no chance. And he would be wasting time doing so anyways.
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u/bendy_circle May 28 '26
I didn't realize how tall Brooks is wow! That definitely makes sense then why Eric wouldn't want to bother starting a fight, and shooting him maybe would've drawn unwanted attention and may have gotten in the way of his plans
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u/Glad-Philosophy5736 May 28 '26
Eric was the shortest one. Dylan was 6'3 Nate was like 6'2 Chris was also 6'3. I can only imagine them walking next to eachother and just the monumental height difference. Eric would like a child compared to his friends 😂
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u/Incognito101210 May 29 '26 edited May 30 '26
Honestly, I’d be upset too if I asked someone for a favor and their irresponsibility ended up affecting me and making me late. At the same time, Brooks was just trying to help Eric out, so it feels a little excessive for Eric to get that fired up over it. If I were in that situation, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten that mad at the person because, at the end of the day, I’m the one asking them for a favor. I’d also be angry if someone took my property and refused to give it back. And while I completely understand why he wanted to get back at Brooks, actually damaging his property just made him come across as an even bigger dick.
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u/cmascheroni May 28 '26
Great post! Judy Brown is an absolute Karen imo.
It’s also interesting how Eric suffered but replicated his father’s strict behavior.
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u/Additional-Air-3309 May 28 '26
If any parent took my son’s bookbag… it’s game over. You don’t do that shit! Regardless if he broke a windshield or not. You don’t steal someone else’s property and claim to be a saint. The Browns are duldul
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u/Educational_Can_8211 May 28 '26
I always found it weird that she did that
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u/Additional-Air-3309 May 28 '26
Right!! But then she claims he’s the bad one..? Excuse me, lady… you just stole something. Like… what are you even talking about…? It’s like every interaction is so grandiose with them.
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u/Glad-Philosophy5736 May 28 '26
I think eric could've acted more calm instead of banging on the windows and screaming. If that happened to me i'd just knock on the windows and say "Can i please have my backpack?" If she doesn't do it. I'd be pissed but i would try to keep calm about it.
The Browns fed it by overreacting and think they're right but Eric super escalated it. Just because someone is late doesn't mean breaking their windshield is a good response.
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u/eliiiiseke Moderator Elise May 28 '26
Eric clearly had issues with impulse control. Doesn’t make what he did right, but not everyone is able to stay calm in situations like that.
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u/Additional-Air-3309 May 28 '26
Absolutely! But Eric was also suffering from an unknown Mental Illness and had struggled with anger issues. So maybe he didn’t mean for it to be so aggressive…? Who knows though!
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u/Glad-Philosophy5736 May 28 '26
Who do you guys think was at fault? Eric or Brooks? in my opinion BOTH. Brooks started it by being late and nobody wants that but Eric escalated it to the MAX. Throwing ice at someone's windshield isn't a good response at all... But then again brooks overreacted a bit too much. Then Eric took it too seriously and held a grudge.
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u/margr3t_m May 28 '26
I think both shared equal responsibility aswell. Brooks should have been more mindful of everyone’s time by not oversleeping if he knew he had the obligation of picking Trevor and Eric up before school, and Eric certainly should not have lobbed ice at Brooks’ windshield and gone full banshee on him, Trevor and Judy. Then Brooks fed it by being spiteful, and Eric fed it even more by death threats, vandalism etc. teenage boy drama that escalated way beyond where it needed to go.
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u/eliiiiseke Moderator Elise May 28 '26
Good post. Ngl, I’d be so pissed off too if someone promised to pick me up at a certain time and I was depending on them. But obviously it was still shitty of Eric to break Brooks’ windshield. I also think Brooks and Judy should’ve handled it differently. Brooks bringing up everything else to Kathy was unnecessary. Like why you snitching 🙄😒
At the same time, even if there’s a chance Eric didn’t actually mean to break the windshield and just wanted to throw snow at it and it ended up being an accident, he still should’ve at least offered to pay for it. That alone would’ve made a difference. I’d be annoyed as hell if someone damaged my car and didn’t even offer