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Columbine shooter's mother speaks out

February 14, 2016 at 2:56AM
FILE - In this April 28, 1999, file photo, a woman stands among 15 crosses posted on a hill above Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in remembrance of the 15 people who died during a school shooting on April 20, 1999. The mother of Columbine High School shooter Dylan Klebold said she didn't know anything was wrong with her son before the 1999 attack, and she prayed for his death when she heard he was involved and that the rampage might still be underway. In an interview that aired on "20
Fifteen crosses were posted on a hill above Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in remembrance of the people who died during the school shooting. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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The mother of Columbine High School shooter Dylan Klebold says she didn't know anything was wrong with her son before the 1999 attack, and she prayed for his death when she heard he was involved and that the rampage might still be underway.

In an interview that aired on "20/20" late Friday, Sue Klebold told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that before the attack she considered herself a parent who would have known something was wrong.

"I think we like to believe that our love and our understanding is protective, and that if anything were wrong with my kids, I would know. But I didn't know, and it's very hard to live with that," she said.

"I felt that I was a good mom … that he would, he could talk to me about anything," she continued. "Part of the shock of this was that learning that what I believed and how I lived and how I parented was an invention in my own mind. That it, it was a completely different world that he was living in."

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire at the suburban Denver school on April 20, 1999, killing 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves. Another 24 people were injured in the attack.

Sue Klebold said in the interview that when she heard the attack might still be underway, she prayed her son would die so the violence would stop.

"I remember thinking if this is true, if Dylan is really hurting people, somehow he has to be stopped." she said.

The interview coincides with the release of Klebold's memoir, "A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy," which goes on sale Monday.

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Associated Press

In this undated image provided by ABC News, television anchor Diane Sawyer, left, interviews Sue Klebold, right, the mother of Columbine High School shooter Dylan Klebold on "20/20," in Denver. The special edition exclusive interview aired Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. (ABC News via AP)
Sue Klebold said in an interview aired Friday that she didn’t know anything was wrong with her son before the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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