eric david harris was born on april 9, 1981, in wichita, kansas to his parents wayne and kathy harris. he had an older brother, kevin harris, born may 14, 1978. eric's father was in the air force and his mother stayed at home to raise eric and kevin. due to wayne's job in the air force, the harris' moved many times and eric attended many different schools.
in 1983, the harris family moved to huber heights, ohio where wayne was stationed at wright-patterson air force base. eric began attending elementary school at a nearby town beavercreek, ohio. in 1987, the family moved from huber heights to beavercreek where eric attended kindergarten to second grade.
in 1989, the harris family moved to oscoda, michigan where wayne worked as a aircraft commander and instructor at wurtsmith air force base and eric attended 3rd to 5th grade here. eric's 5th grade teacher described him as "a perfect little 5th grader, A student, small for his age, adorable." about his life in oscoda, eric wrote: "oscoda is a very, very small town. of the three close neighbors i had, two of them had children my age. every day we would play in the woods, or at our houses. we would make forts in the woods or make them out of snow, we would ride around on our bikes or just explore the woods. it was probably the most fun i ever had in my childhood." , "the woods behind my house were vast, empty, and old. it smelled of a musty tree or maybe of pine trees most of the time in there. those woods left so many memories in my mind it's amazing." , "i was even afraid to go into the woods at nighttime, for fear of the unknown. for the most part, however, my memories are fond ones."
in 1992, the harris family moved to plattsburgh, new york where wayne served two years with the 380th operations support squadron. eric was very upset about this move and leaving his friends from michigan. "it doesn’t take long to make a best friend, but it only takes two words to lose one. those are, “we’re moving" wrote eric. eric attended 6th and part of 7th grade in plattsburgh where he was described as a quiet kid but with many friends. in april of 1993, eric's dad encouraged him to join the little league team and he did, his parents attended every game and practice. whenever he came up to bat, his dad would give him a pat on the back, eric would often let the balls zoom past him as he didn't want to miss. in plattsburgh, eric became best friends with kris otten. eric wrote "every day we would find something new to do. some days we would walk along the shore of the lake and just mess around there. sometimes we would look for old bullet shells from around 50 years ago and we even looked for revolutionary war and civil war era items." "you’ve been a good friend, have a great summer. i’ll send you a shirt from denver. i’m gonna miss all of you.” eric wrote in his friend, adam pasti's, yearbook.
in 1993, the harris family moved to littleton, colorado where wayne retired from the military and began working at flight safety in englewood where he trained pilots to fly large aircrafts. kathy began working part time as a caterer. eric attended ken caryl middle school for the remainder of 7th grade and 8th grade, this is where he met dylan klebold. “at the end of eighth grade, dylan and eric were both recognized for their achievement in math. when they walked up to the stage to accept their awards, i whispered to tom that they looked like two peas in a pod.” said sue klebold, dylan's mother. eric began attending columbine in 1995, he became good friends with brooks brown after meeting him on the bus to school. eric met nate dykeman in spanish class and then introduced him to brooks and dylan.
during freshman year, eric met tiffany typher in german class and they went to homecoming together. when tiffany refused to go on another date with him after homecoming, eric staged his own suicide. “he had his friend take me over to his house. when i went there, he was laying with his head on a rock, and there was fake blood around him, and he was acting like he was dead.” said tiffany.
in 1996, the harris family moved to 8276 south reed street. neighborhood kids recall seeing eric play street hockey in front of his house. he helped the family with yardwork on weekends and when he got his drivers license and car, a 1986 honda, he'd drive slowly and wave to neighbors.
in 1997, during his sophomore year at columbine, friends say eric changed and his anger emerged. that same year eric began working at blackjack pizza. dylan klebold and chris morris, a member of the trenchcoat mafia, also worked at blackjacks and the three of them would often speak about explosives and get into mischief at work. eric and dylan would set off fireworks in the back alley and once set a fire in the sink at blackjacks.
eric, dylan and zack heckler would go on "rebel missions" where they would sneak out in the middle of the night to sabotage the houses of people they disliked by throwing eggs, toilet paper, and setting off fireworks etc, eric posted about these on his website, "we plan out and execute missions. anyone pisses us off we do a little deed to their house. eggs, teepee, superglue, busy boxes, large amounts of fireworks, you name it and we will or probably or already have done it. we have many enemies in our school, therefor we make many missions. its sort of a night time tradition for us.."
near the end of his sophomore year in february of 1997, eric and brooks got into an argument. brooks says it was because he was often late giving eric a ride to school and after eric chewed him out about it one too many times, brooks told him to find another ride to school. eric got angry and threw a chunk of ice at brooks' car and cracked his windshield. brooks demanded that eric pay for the damages and eric yelled "kiss my ass brooks, i aint paying for shit!" eric posted brooks' phone number and address in one of the posts on his website saying "we went over to this asshole's house. his name is brooks brown, phone number (303) 972-0602, address is 8003 south vance street, if any of you feel [like] pranking him."
on january 30th, 1998, eric and dylan were arrested for breaking into a van and stealing electrical equipment. they had to complete a juvenile diversion program and do community work and take classes. eric began seeing a psychologist and was prescribed prozac, around this time he started keeping a journal.