GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) -- Authorities have removed unauthorized background music from a video showing the aftermath of the Columbine massacre and are again distributing the tape for $25 a copy.
Public demand prompted Jefferson County officials to double their original order of 500 copies of the tape, which includes footage from the day of the attack and images of its aftermath. Part of the nearly three-hour tape had been set to a pop-music soundtrack for the purposes of a training video.The county sold 107 copies of the tape last Wednesday and Thursday, the first two days it was available. But distribution was halted when musicians whose songs were dubbed onto the tape demanded that the tunes be removed.
Singer Sarah McLachlan, whose song "I Will Remember You," was heard on the tape, said adding music to the Columbine images was "sick."
Twelve students and one teacher were shot to death at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, by two teenage gunmen, who then killed themselves.
Jefferson County authorities decided to make the videotape public after a judge ordered them to make it available to relatives of victims who are suing the sheriff's office over their handling of the rampage.
For many relatives of Columbine victims, the addition of music only compounded their outrage over the public release of the videotapes. They said the songs made the footage seem more like a music video than a training film.
By Friday, 462 people had called to order the tape.