TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: School Violence

  • Kimveer Gill was here

    I was going back over Steve Huff’s entry on Kimveer Gill seeing what comments he was getting. Steve had updated his entry and I read something that made my heart drop…

    UPDATE, 5:52 p.m. EDT

    Kimveer Gill, as you might expect, didn’t just start aping the style and mannerisms of past psychos like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. He probably had been going down the deadly road he was on for quite some time.

    To my surprise, I found posts by Gill (and at this point, for all I know, others have already found these as well — this story promises to be very heavily covered by everyone because the guy had an online journal) on the Usenet.

    Gill used the Yahoo address rogue_warrior_50@yahoo.ca, and in November of 2005, he posted to this newsgroup: http://groups.google.com/group/aps-global-solutions/.

    I knew that e-mail address well. rogue_warrior_50@yahoo.ca had left comments on this very site. I understand that you’re skeptical. I would be too. Let me provide some photographic proof for you. This is a picture of my blog’s control panel…

    He went by the name Rogue and left the following comments…

    On an entry about Christopher Penley, the Florida teen who was shot and killed at his school for brandishing a pellet gun at police, entitled “Was lethal force justified?” Gill left this comment…

    The police used extreme force. It’s completely unacceptable. The Rebel was moving the gun in all directions, very fast. He didn’t once point, steady, stance and aim it. He was just swinging it around. And everyone knows you can’t kill someone like that, if you’re moving it around, at the sky, and whatever. No shots were fired by the young Rebel, he didn’t even hurt anyone.

    That cop is a coward. He was attacked earlier in his life. And ever since that he has become paranoid, and scared. Like a girl after she gets raped. Afraid of everything and everyone. The police had been told earlier that it wasn’t even a real gun. They didn’t even mention that on T.V.

    The police kill another innocent person

    This comment was left on an entry about a high school murder plot…

    I don’t understand what’s wrong with this country. Two schoolgirls were playing around, joking if you will, and now they’re going to go to jail, just for a joke.

    When I was in High School people would say they were going to kill each other all the time, no one got in trouble.

    Why have the masses on this earth turned into cowards?
    Where are the warriors

    This comment on an entry about a teen who made a threat that he was going to use a pitchfork in a school attack…

    A student at school makes a joke, and the police spend all their resources to stop him. “A little joke”

    The young lad was just letting off some steam. Give him a break. Come on, where’s your sense of humour?

    Nobody goes on a killing spree with a pitchfork.

    The country is full of child molesters, priests, rapists, and child molesting priests. Can we perhaps take them off the streets before spending all law enforcement resources on a teenager’s prank.

    You people make me sick

    This comment on an entry about a Florida teen that threatened to shoot up his school…

    Poor Christopher
    He did nothing wrong
    Commit no crime

    And now they’ve sent him to prison
    It’s just not right
    Well at least we can rest easy that this young lad will be free and back to his old tricks in a few short months

    Here’s hopin’

    This comment on an entry about a teen from Michigan who got in trouble for printing out a bomb threat on his school computer…

    I can’t believe the school would over-react like that. Children at school can’t even joke around anymore. And for the police to go along with this, I mean, come on…..this is shocking.

    They’re slowly turning the country into a police state

    My friends and I have said things like that at when we were still in school, and we never thought we would go to jail for it. I don’t understand what kind of society this is. I thought we had freedom of speech.

    IT’S JUST A JOKE PEOPLE, DAMN…..

    This comment on my first post about the Riverton, Kansas school shooting plot…

    I had a feeling someone was going to try to do something like this on the 20th of this month. The cops got it all wrong. They wern’t going to do it for real. They’re just kids having a little fun. I hope the pigs don’t actually give them a fine or 2 weeks in jail, cuz’ that would be an injustice.

    If they were really going to do this, they would not be posting messages on MySpace and telling people in their school about it.

    I can’t believe the police have nothing better to do than waste tax payers money on stuff like this. I mean come on now……Boys will be boys

    This comment on an entry about a threat made by a student that he claimed was a joke…

    Why would the student face disciplinary action?

    It’s just a joke……we’re sending our kids to jail, and ruining their lives over silly childhood pranks

    The governments really going over board here

    It’s time to take the power back

    This comment on an entry about a Washington State teen who was arrested for planning his own school shooting plot…

    How can the police arrest this young rebel, and send him to jail? He hasn’t done anything wrong. Many teenagers feel isolated and alone, and for such a reason they may create an imaginary reality within their own mind, such as shooting people.

    If he was really going to kill alot of people then he wouldn’t be telling people he was going to do it. It’s just common sense. I believe he just wanted a little attention, nothing more.

    Lets hope he gets outta jail soon, and the police give him back the guns the seized

    For that comment, I banned him from leaving comments on my site.

    The last time I heard from him was from an e-mail he sent me, which you can see here.

    (UPDATE 7/1/2012: Some of the entries that Gill commented on have since been deleted from the site. However, I have created a standalone blog called Gill Was Here that has all his postings from my site.)

  • Castillo obsessed with not only Columbine

    Castillo obsessed with not only Columbine

    Shooting Suspect Obsessed With Columbine:

    More information about the e-mail Alvaro Castillo sent to Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis and about Castillo himself…

    Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis did not read the e-mail until after the attack, according to a statement Thursday by the Jefferson County, Colo., schools. DeAngelis called the district’s security director, who called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

    And it seems Castillo was not just a Columbine worshiping mutant either…

    “He was obsessed with Columbine, the (Kip) Kinkel shooting in Oregon, the (Jonesboro) Arkansas high school shooting,” the sheriff said. Investigators found numerous diaries at Castillo’s home in which he wrote about attacks, Orange County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said.

    And I wonder if this was the real trigger…

    Officials with the North Carolina National Guard said Thursday that Castillo entered the guard as a recruit in 2004 and completed basic combat training in August 2005. He was never deployed and was being processed out of the guard after being determined to be medically disqualified for military service, according to the statement.

    Eric Harris was denied entrance to the Marines shortly before Columbine. Coincidence, or a mutant imitating his hero? Probably coincidence, but it’s an eerie one.

  • Castillo e-mailed Columbine principal

    Castillo e-mailed Columbine principal

    Authorities: NC school shooting suspect e-mailed Columbine principal:

    Ok, this Alvaro Castillo guy just made himself king mutant…

    (Hillsborough, NC-AP) August 31, 2006 – Authorities say the 19-year-old man accused of killing his father and then injuring two students during a shooting at Orange High School in North Carolina sent an e-mail to the Columbine High School principal warning of his attack.

    The message was sent Wednesday morning by Alvaro Castillo to Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis. It read: “Dear Principal, In a few hours you will probably hear about a school shooting in North Carolina. I am responsible for it. I remember Columbine. It is time the world remembered it. I am sorry. Goodbye.”

    He almost seems like the John Mark Karr of the mutant set, except that Castillo actually killed someone.

  • Color me shocked (More on Alvaro Rafael Castillo)

    Color me shocked (More on Alvaro Rafael Castillo)

    Teen in Shooting Obsessed With Columbine:

    You could have knocked me over with a feather when I read the headline. Well, more like a sledgehammer. I knew my guess about Alvaro Rafael Castillo being a mutant would be correct…

    A teenager accused of killing his father and then shooting two students at his former high school said Thursday that he had been obsessed for years with the mass killing at Columbine High School.

    Alvaro Rafael Castillo mentioned that massacre as he arrived for an initial appearance in Orange County District Court. When asked why he fixated on the 1999 attack, Castillo said he didn’t know.

    The 19-year-old was assigned a lawyer at his first court appearance and ordered held without bond. He didn’t speak during the brief hearing and only nodded when asked by Judge Charles Anderson if he understood the proceedings.

    That last paragraph kind of surprised me. I thought Castillo would be crazy enough to go off on some rant while in court.

    I found this mildly interesting…

    The owner of the property on which the Castillo home is located refused to allow reporters access to the private road on Wednesday evening. The home is located amid a mix of horse farms, trailer parks and modest homes.

    I wonder which one he lived in.

  • More details on Alvaro Rafael Castillo

    More details on Alvaro Rafael Castillo

    Teen charged with first-degree murder:

    Even more details in the murder of Rafael Huezo Castillo and the Orange High School shooting in Hillsborough, NC by Alvaro Rafael Castillo…

    The first reports of what happened early Wednesday afternoon at Orange High School summoned a modern nightmare:

    A trench-coat-clad teenager with guns and pipe bombs, shots fired, students hurt.

    Asked why he had gone to Orange High School on Wednesday, Castillo, a former student, responded, “Columbine. Remember Columbine,” AP reported.

    And we have status on one of the victims at the school…

    About 1 p.m., an armed man “flew” past the parking lot’s guard house in a gray minivan and fired about eight shots, said Anne D’Annunzio, an Orange County Schools spokeswoman.

    Two students were injured, neither seriously. Senior Tiffaney Utsman’s right shoulder was grazed by a bullet. An unidentified male student was hurt by broken glass, D’Annunzio said.

    Utsman had been released from a hospital by Wednesday evening, said her mother, Champe Revis. “My feeling about Tiffaney is absolute relief that she really was not hurt at all,” Revis said.

    Details of the shooting at the school…

    Courtney Long, a senior, said she was outside when she saw a man jump from a minivan wearing a black hat, black trench coat, black sunglasses and a white T-shirt. He set off a long line of firecrackers, she said, sending up smoke. She said he fired at car tires, then at a school window, sending a bullet through the glass.

    From a patio outside, senior Scott Cook heard an explosion and turned to see a man standing amid smoke in the parking lot.

    “He pulled out a gun. … He fired in the air, then he aimed it toward the school. At that time, I high-tailed it out of there and ran into the building,” Cook said.

    At the Orange High School parking lot, deputies found ammunition, weapons and homemade pipe bombs in the van. The Durham County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad removed the bombs.

    I saw the video of the little bastard on my local news today. He literally is batshit crazy because he was smiling like he just won the lottery as they put him in the police car.

    Castillo is due in court today.

  • More on Orange High School shooting

    More on Orange High School shooting

    Former student charged with killing father:

    The suspect in the Orange High School shooting in Hillsborough, North Carolina also killed his father…

    Alvaro Rafael Castillo, 19, of Hillsborough has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his father Rafael Huezo Castillo following Wednesday’s shocking school shooting at Orange High School.

    “Sacrifice, it’s all sacrifice.” Castillo said when asked why he murdered his father and shot at Orange High students. “We all have to die for the world is cruel.”

    Orange County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said the younger Castillo confessed to killing his father after deputies arrested him for firing on his former high school.

    After the confession, deputies moved on the information. They forced their way inside of the Castillos’ home on Lipps Lane near the Durham County line. Inside, they found the boy’s father shot to death.

    When asked about his father, Castillo said, “He made us suffer all his life. Someone had to put him out of his misery. He abused me and my family. He was abused, too.”

    Castillo’s mutant ranking is way off the scale, too…

    As he was being forced into a police car, Castillo shouted out, “Columbine! Remember Columbine! Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold! Nathan Leopold, it’s his birthday! Sacrifice!” As the car was driving away, Castillo made his hand into the shape of a gun, put two fingers that were simulating a barrel into his mouth and then acted like he was shooting.

    It should be noted that August 30, 1971, is actually the day Nathan Leopold died – not his birthday. Leopold and Richard Loeb gained notoriety in 1924 after they murdered a 14-year-old boy. The two University of Chicago students believed they were so smart they could pull off the perfect crime.

    Since he’s obviously a deranged mutant, I wonder what the alleged abuse actually was.

  • School Shooting in North Carolina

    School Shooting in North Carolina

    Two injured in school shooting:

    HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — One person was shot and two people were injured Wednesday after a shooting at Orange High School.

    Officials say a man fired approximately eight shots in the high school parking lot, hitting one female student in the shoulder. Another male student was injured by flying glass.

    The gunman is now in custody. Officials said he sped past the high school’s security gate in a light gray minivan before opening fire. The gunman was a former student.

    Two guns were seen lying on the parking lot pavement outside of the minivan after the shooting. One appears to be a shotgun. The other is a rifle and might possibly be an assault rifle missing its ammunition clip.

    Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department locked down the school when they arrived. They weren’t letting anyone either in or out. They finally started busing students out of the school around 3:30 p.m.

    As soon as I have more details I’ll let you know.

  • Today’s lesson in journalism

    School’s weapons incident reviewed:

    Hey kids. Uncle Trench here.

    A long, long time ago, even before your Uncle Trench was born, newspapers used to actually report the news instead of trying to manufacture it.

    For example, take this quote from the august and esteemed Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Robin Kittrell, the 17-year-old who was arrested for bringing an arsenal to school allegedly to prevent a Columbine-like situation…

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found some discrepancies in administrators’ accounts of what occurred the day Fayette County sheriff’s deputies carted away Robin Kittrell, who remains in jail on nine weapons violations, including six felonies.

    When asked about the tip the day after the arrest, for example, Whitewater principal Greg Stillions said he was notified by a central office administrator that the 17-year-old senior might have “knives and guns.”

    Later, that administrator, through a spokeswoman, said the tipster mentioned two students as possibly having knives, but not guns. Both were questioned and searched on the first day of school, she said, and one was cleared.

    Also, when asked why Kittrell was allowed to enter the school building when he knew the student might have a weapon, Stillions said Kittrell had no record of disciplinary offenses and noted how difficult it would have been to locate him among 1,700 other teenagers.

    Do you see the AJC trying to make a story where one doesn’t exist?

    Does any of that really matter? What matters to me is that they caught Robin Kittrell and no one was hurt. Some of the parents agree…

    Few parents seem to be concerned about how the incident was handled. County Board of Education chairwoman Terri Smith, whose daughter attends Whitewater, said she hasn’t received a single call.

    “I don’t want to armchair quarterback,” she said. “But from what I hear, they handled it correctly.”

    So why is the AJC making a mountain out of this molehill?

  • More on Kittrell’s possible motive

    Questions linger in student’s weapons bust:

    Just some more insight into the motives of Robin Kittrell, the 17-year-old who brought an arsenal of guns to his Georgia high school to help prevent a Columbine-like situation. According to the last few paragraphs in the article, there was a rumor going around that another student was going to bomb Whitewater High School.

    But questions remain about exactly what Kittrell, whom school officials said had no record of disciplinary problems, might have intended to do with the weapons and black, ninja-like outfit — complete with mask, gloves and sword — that police confiscated.

    It sounds like Kittrell had some kind of grandiose plans of being some kind of vigilante or pictured himself as some kind of superhero. If that’s the case, then he should have gone the Spider-Man route and not used any weapons but himself.

  • Kittrell denied bond

    Fayette senior denied bond on weapons charges:

    Robin Kittrell, the 17-year-old Georgia student who brought an arsenal to school, has been denied bond. If you remember, he claims he was trying to prevent a Columbine rather than starting one.

    “I can’t say for certain what he might have done,” said District Attorney Scott Ballard. “But he couldn’t have had good intentions.”

    Ballard said he was not familiar with Kittrell’s past but said officials told him the teenager dressed in black clothing and seemed “strange.”

    Dressing in black does not necessarily make someone “strange”. Carrying an arsenal of weapons with you everywhere does.