Officials: Columbine game tied to case of former Leto student

When investigators heard that a 17-year-old student talked about a plot to shoot his classmates at Leto High School, they searched his home and found some unsettling evidence.

A gun. A bow and arrow. Books about firearms. And a copy of a video game about the Columbine High School mass shooting, according to an arrest report.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office won't go into specifics about the game and how it plays. But there's a good possibility it's "Super Columbine Massacre RPG," the only video game on the market based on the killings.

The game, available online as a free download, sparked protests when it was released in 2005. The furor continued a year later when a 25-year-old man who opened fire at students and teachers at Dawson College in Canada wrote on his blog that he had played "Super Columbine Massacre RPG."

"It speaks volumes about the society we live in that a game like this depicts these types of tragedies, float around and influence our kids," sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon said. "I can't imagine anyone getting any type of entertainment value out of it."

Investigators say that former Leto High student Austin James Cook told a witness that he wanted to "break the record" of the casualties at Columbine and Virginia Tech University.

Along with the .22-caliber rifle and the copy of the Columbine video game, detectives also found that Cook had used the Internet to search for information about local gun shops and other school shootings, an arrest report said.

Cook has been charged with solicitation to commit murder and threatening to discharge a destructive advice. He is charged as an adult and is being held without bail.

The game's creator, Danny Ledonne, said he made "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" as a "first-hand narrative" that tried to shed light on the mentality of teen killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and why the shootings happened.

"It was a way to empathize with something hard to understand," Ledonne, 28, now a Washington D.C.-based filmmaker said. "If you play it, you won't learn how to build a bomb or how to shoot people from 60 feet away. On that level, my conscience is clear."

In the game, players take the role of Harris and Klebold, the teens who killed 13 people at their Colorado high school in 1999 then committed suicide in the school library.

The game depicts events in the lives of Harris and Klebold in the weeks prior to the massacre and on the day of the slayings. Digitized photos of the victims and the crime scenes also pop up during the game.

The second half of "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" takes a bizarre twist because the game doesn't end with the killer's suicides. Instead the characters of Harris and Klebold are shown fighting demons in purgatory.

Ledonne said he sifted through 11,000 pages of investigative documents to recreate events before and during the slayings. Quotes from the victims and from the killers' journals were also used as dialogue in the game.

Brian Crecente, the editor-in-chief of video game blog Kotaku, said Ledonne's creation is simplistic, using blocky, pixilated characters and animation.

Compared to modern titles like the "Grand Theft Auto" or "Call of Duty" series, the violence in "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" is cartoonish.

"It's not a graphic game," Crecente said. "I would be surprised that despite its gruesome content, anyone would be amped up to go and do something after playing it."

Ledonne said he received numerous death threats during the height of the controversy four years ago.

"But people also asked for my autograph," Ledonne said. "Some people e-mailed me saying, 'Thanks for making it, it saved my life.'"

Ledonne said it's unfair for people to think that video games, albums or movies are solely responsible for influencing violent acts.

"The most important thing is that when you hear about someone who wants to commit violence on others or themselves, report it," Ledonne said. "Keep an open ear. Talk to other people about it."