Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was shot and paralyzed in the Mass Crack of Columbine High School in 1999, died on Sunday from natural causes, Fox News Digital learned. She was 43 years old.
Hochhalter, one of 23 people who were injured and survived Littleton, Colorado, a massacre, was closed in a wheelchair for the rest of his life due to injuries and remembers as a “pillar of strength” in his community.
She was shot in her back and chest as she dishes with friends in a school cafeteria. Twelve students and one teacher was killed in the attack When the twelfth grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened the fire. The shooters then killed themselves.
Anne Marie Hochhalter, which was paralyzed during the 1999 attack on Columbine High School, in the picture in April 2024. Hochhalter died on Sunday. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
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Frank Deangelis, her former director, announced Hochhalter’s passage and said she admired for his resilience and perseverance.
“My Columbine Rebel family. With great sadness and sadness, I share with you that Anne Marie Hochhalter passed away … of natural causes,” Deangelis said in a statement provided by Fox News Digital.
“Anne Marie was a graduate in 2000. She was for me a pillar of strength and so many others. She was inspiration and example, she never gave up. Please keep your family in her thoughts and prayers. She will miss her, but never forgotten .
Deangelis said the details of the funeral arrangement have not yet been published.
The surviving shooting of Columbine Anne Marie Hochhalter (right) talks to Sue Townsend, the mother of the victim of shooting Lauren Townsend, during the 25th year of memories ceremony on April 19, 2024, at the First Baptist Church in Denver in Denver, Colorado. Hochhalter died on Sunday. (Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)
Hochhalter -O’s younger brother Nathan was also at school at the time of the shooting. He was trapped in a classroom with about 30 other students while the shooting rang. After four hours later, Swat saved them.
A few months after the shooting, their mother Carla Hochhalter took away her own life after struggling with depression, according to reports.
Anne Marie Hochhalter spoke in 2016 in support of Sue Klebold, mother Sagittarius Dylan Klebold, who published a book considering a mass shooting, especially regarding her relationship with sadness and battle with shame, Reported Fox 21.
Hochhalter wrote a long Facebook post at a time where she wasn’t sure if she would ever read the book, but said she had forgiven her mother a mass killer.
In 2012, Hochhalter also spoke publicly in support of families and survivors Sandy Hook elementary school shooting In Newtown, Connecticut.
Last April was held a vigil on the eve of the 25th anniversary Columbine shooting Which Hochhalter attended. Then she said that she could not attend alertness that marked the 20th anniversary because of the suffering of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I truly managed to cure my soul from that awful day in 1999,” Hochhalter wrote in the post in April 2024, adding that everyone’s sadness and healing path were completely different.
“That teasing and flowing, triggered by certain moments, bringing us back to the memories we once thought were frozen in time.” She wrote.
“I have happened a lot of these anniversaries, the memories of that time period I thought were forever buried back to the surface, happy memories that the teenager who was so focused on boring worldly things like music videos, basketball, sleeping In my friends’ houses and finally beat the tetris on the computer (I was very proud of that achievement).
“This time they did not affect me.
People visit Columbine Memorial, April 17, 2024, in Littleton, Colo. 12 students and teachers killed in shooting at Columbine High School will be remembered on Friday, April 19, 2024, in vigil, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
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She continued to write about her feelings of sadness because of those who lost their lives that day, but said she felt their presence on the vigil.
“When the song” Over The Rainbow “started playing, I looked at the empty chairs and suddenly felt everyone sit there, with smiles on my face, wanting to remember good times. Happy memories,” she wrote.
“We would like us to remember and laugh at their silly terrible lunatics when they were alive, instead of focusing on how their lives were unfortunately ended. Those 13 are always with us. They are never forgotten. We are Columbine.”
