Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was shot and paralyzed in the Columbine High School mass shooting in 1999, died on Sunday of natural causes, Fox News Digital has learned. She was 43.
Hochhalter, one of 23 people who were injured and survived the Littleton, Colorado, massacre, was confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of her life due to her injuries and is being remembered as a “pillar of strength” in her community.
She was shot in the back and chest as she ate with friends in the school’s cafeteria. Twelve students and one teacher were killed in the attack when twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire. The shooters then killed themselves.
Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was paralyzed during the 1999 attack on Columbine High School, pictured in April 2024. Hochhalter died on Sunday. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
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Frank DeAngelis, her former principal, announced Hochhalter’s passing and said she was admired for her resilience and tenacity.
“My Columbine Rebel Family. It is with great sadness and sorrow that I share with you that Anne Marie Hochhalter passed away … of natural causes,” DeAngelis said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
“Anne Marie was a 2000 graduate. She was a pillar of strength for me and so many others. She was an inspiration and exemplified never giving up. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. She will be missed but never forgotten. Rebels for Life. We love you Anne Marie Hochhalter.”
DeAngelis said that funeral arrangement details have not yet been released.
Columbine school shooting survivor Anne Marie Hochhalter (right) talks with Sue Townsend, the mother of shooting victim Lauren Townsend, during a 25th Year Remembrance ceremony on April 19, 2024, at First Baptist Church of Denver in Denver, Colorado. Hochhalter died on Sunday. (Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)
Hochhalter’s younger brother Nathan was also at the school at the time of the shooting. He was trapped in a classroom with about 30 other students as the gunfire rang out. After four hours later SWAT officers rescued them.
Several months after the shooting, their mother, Carla Hochhalter, took her own life after struggling with depression, per reports.
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Anne Marie Hochhalter spoke out in 2016 in support of Sue Klebold, shooter Dylan Klebold’s mother, who released a book reflecting on the mass shooting, especially concerning her relationship with grief and battles with shame, Fox 21 reported.
Hochhalter wrote a lengthy Facebook post at the time in which she wasn’t sure if she would ever read the book but said she had forgiven the mass murderer’s mother.
In 2012, Hochhalter also spoke publicly in support of the families and survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Last April, a vigil was held on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Columbine shooting which Hochhalter attended. She said at the time that she was unable to attend a vigil marking the 20th anniversary due to her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I’ve truly been able to heal my soul since that awful day in 1999,” Hochhalter wrote in an April 2024 post, adding that everyone’s grief and healing journey is completely different.
“It ebbs and flows, triggered by certain moments, taking us back to memories we once thought were frozen in time.” She wrote.
“I’ve had that happen quite a bit this anniversary, memories from that time period I thought were buried forever have come back to the surface, happy memories of being a teenager who was so focused on the boring mundane things like music videos, basketball, sleepovers at my friends’ houses, and finally beating Tetris on the computer (I was very proud of that accomplishment).”
“No bad memories have affected me this time. It’s like my heart has wanted to flood my mind with happiness instead of trauma.”
People visit the Columbine Memorial, April 17, 2024, in Littleton, Colo. The 12 students and a teacher killed in the Columbine High School shooting will be remembered Friday, April 19, 2024, in a vigil on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
She went on to write about her feelings of sadness about those who had lost their lives that day but said she felt their presence at the vigil.
“When the song ‘Over the Rainbow’ started playing, I looked at the empty chairs and suddenly felt all of them sitting there, with smiles on their faces, wanting us to remember the good times. The happy memories,” she wrote.
“They would want us to remember and laugh at their silly goofy antics when they were alive, instead of focusing on how their lives sadly ended. Those 13 are always with us. They’re never forgotten. We are Columbine.”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/columbine-high-school-shooting-survivor-dies-nearly-26-years-after-massacre
