New York Post
August 13, 1999
THREATS DOG FAMILY OF VICTIM IN LITTLETON
By DOUGLAS MONTERO
AS STUDENTS return to Columbine HS today - four months after the massacre there, three days after another in California - the family of one of their own is on the run.
The family of Isaiah Shoels, the 18-year-old senior shot dead during the April 20 bloodbath, is running from the Denver-area community that reeled in shock after the shooting.
Isaiah's father, Michael, has drawn the community's wrath because he used his son's death and the national media to publicly talk about the racism and hatred for people who are different that is apparently bred and nurtured in this area.
The Shoels family quickly began getting death threats by letter and telephone.
"If you don't keep quiet, something drastic is going to happen to you," Shoels recalls one caller saying.
Or, "If you don't like Colorado, you should pack up and move out."
Or a ransom note-type letter threatening them.
In downtown Denver, the family was even verbally assaulted by a young man who called them, "You f------- n-words."
Or worse, the one caller who accused Shoels of orchestrating the massacre.
Shoels and his family are shell-shocked. They feel that the same intolerance that drove Columbine High misfits Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to go on their bloody rampage still exists in Littleton - and is being practiced on them.
Shoels' fears began to materialize two days before his son's burial when two white youths wearing the same black trenchcoats sported by Harris and Klebold stood outside his home in a threatening manner.
Family members chased the youths off, but Shoels decided it was time to leave Littleton.
"I had to get out of there," said Shoels, who refuses to sleep twice in the same place. "We are afraid for our safety."
Shoels, who at times appears paranoid, has moved his remaining children, Michelle and Anthony, both 15, to an undisclosed location. Both teen-agers were supposed to return to Columbine for orientation today, but they are not going.
The Shoelses have been criticized for their high profile since Isaiah's death. Many, including the local media, have taken shots at them for filing a $250 million lawsuit against the Harris and Klebold families and hiring high-profile Michigan lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, well-known for representing Jack Kevorkian.
Shoels says the suit is not about the money, it's to draw attention to the problem in Littleton.
Family adviser Sam Riddle is another sore spot. People here look at Riddle as the Denver version of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
"The Shoels are being treated like they pulled the trigger in Columbine," Riddle said.
Riddle is right.
The Shoelses are victims in the Columbine massacre. But unlike other families they decided to expose Littleton and the closed mentalities of some of its residents to the public.
It's no secret that Isaiah was called a "n-word" before he was gunned down by the two Nazi-loving Internet users.
Shoels is not only speaking out for his family. He speaks for everyone who cringed again Tuesday when they heard a rampaging racist named Buford Furrow had fired 70 rounds into a Jewish day-care center in California.
"It's like April 20th all over again," Shoels said when he heard.
"It's a shame. Not only in Colorado, but America, that we could be suffering from something like this.
"It's ridiculous. It's a shame."
Copyright (c) 1999 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
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