(4-1-26) A sad story of the death of a Columbine student who survived the tragic school shootings…only to take his own life shortly after that.

Greg Barnes was a sophomore at Columbine during the shootings. At 6’4 and 175 pounds, he was an exceptional basketball player – one of the top players on Columbine’s team. He had a bright future as a basketball player, averaging 26 points a game, he had 31 points in Columbine’s loss during a state quarterfinal playoff game in March. The Denver Post and The Denver Rocky Mountain News had named him to their all-state teams.

Even rival coaches agreed he was probably the best player in Colorado. Recruiters from Notre Dame, Harvard and other colleges were interested in him.

Greg was friends with Matt Kechter, who was killed in the library during the shootings. He and Matt used to study together frequently, and Barnes would drive Kechter home from school. Greg also saw Coach Dave Sanders get shot right outside of his classroom.

Before the shootings, Greg had been in a Creative Writing class with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In that class, Harris wrote a story about being a shotgun. Two weeks after the tragedy, he told the Denver Post: “Maybe it was a warning sign.”

May 4, 2000, Greg hanged himself with an electrical cord. When his parents, Mark and Judy, found his body “Adam’s Song” was on replay where he died. No one who knew him had any indication that he was suicidal. He left no note.

His teammate Dave Mitchell spoke to him the night before his death.

“It didn’t seem like anything was wrong. We talked about the usual stuff: Girls.”

Even his coach, Rudy Martin, saw no sign of despondancy or depression.

“I don’t know what to tell my own kids. For two years, their hero was Greg Barnes.

He stopped in and talked almost every day.”