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DeAngelis, who was 43 when the massacre occurred on April 20, 1999, recounted his near-brush with one of the shooters while he was leading some students away from the shooting site.
The principal had just run out into the hallway after hearing a report of gunfire when he saw some female students walking toward him, seemingly oblivious to what was happening ahead of them.
He recalled that he tried to lead them toward the gymnasium where they could lock the doors, but they were not able to get in because the doors were already locked.
"Girls were screaming, the gunman was firing shots and he was getting closer. I go to open the door and it's locked. I had 35 keys on a key ring and I reached in my pocket and I pulled out a key and it was a key that opened the door on the first try," DeAngelis narrated, as reported by The Christian Post.
"It was not a specially marked key, it wasn't larger or anything. I just reached into my pocket, first try, and I really believe it was divine intervention. If I would have had to fumble around to find the key there's a good chance the girls and I probably would have died that day," he continued.
DeAngelis said that he had a hard time walking back into the schol after the massacre, but a counselor who was a member of his parish provided him with the spiritual and mental support he needed to deal with the tragedy.
The principal said that it was traumatizing and depressing in the first few weeks, but remembering what the students were like when they were still alive gave him the motivation to return to the school.
He said that family and friends had advised him to transfer to another school, but the pastor at his parish, Fr. Ken Leone, encouraged him to stay and help rebuild the community.
DeAngelis, who stayed as principal at Columbine until 2014, is now talking with other principals of schools where mass shootings have taken place.
According to The Christian Post, he has been speaking with Patricia Greer, the principal at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, where two students were killed and 18 were wounded in a shooting incident on Jan. 23.
On Thursday, DeAngelis read the names of the 13 Columbine victims during a rally at Clement Park near the school.
The rally was attended by 58 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, where a mass shooting resulted in the deaths of 17 students.
