TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: School Violence

  • Castillo’s family knew of obsession

    Castillo’s family knew of obsession

    Orange Co. Shooting Suspect Obsessed With Columbine:

    A little more background on the life of Alvaro Castillo…

    The suspect’s mother, Victoria, and sister, also named Victoria, were present in the courtroom when Castillo was charged. Castillo smiled at them as he was brought in. The women did not comment, but they were visibly shaken during the court appearance.

    A neighbor of the Castillo family, Tim Fluet, was also at the courthouse and described the family as friendly and kind. He said that Victoria Castillo had mentioned to him her son’s obsession with the Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colorado which occurred on April 20, 1999.

    When asked by reporters how long he had been obsessed with the Columbine tragedy, he said, “Since I was ten.”

    When asked why, he said he didn’t know.

    Sheriff’s deputies said Castillo had a previous run-in with law enforcement. He told a law enforcement officer during a traffic stop on April 20th of this year — the seven-year anniversary of the Columbine shooting — that he was suicidal.

    Why don’t parents do anything about unhealthy obsessions like this rather than let them go on for years?

    He will appear in court again on September 11th for a probable cause hearing.

    Coincidentally, the birthday of Dylan Klebold. I bet that’s not lost on Castillo.

  • Castillo sends tape to local paper

    Castillo sends tape to local paper

    Paper receives letter, video related to shooting:

    Alvaro Castillo’s mutant status keeps climbing higher and higher…

    The Chapel Hill News on Thursday received a package with a videotape and a letter signed with the name of the man charged Wednesday with killing his father in Hillsborough. The murder charge came after police arrested Alvaro Rafael Castillo in connection with a shooting at Orange High School on Wednesday that slightly injured two students.

    The letter writer says he knows “almost every detail” of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. In that well-publicized incident, 13 students were killed and 23 people were injured by two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who then killed themselves.

    “I sent you the tape because I do not want them locked away just [like] the Basement Tapes that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made,” the letter says. “The police would not release them. This will not happen again. I want the world to see myself.”

    The writer later adds: “I also like to read about massacres like the one that occurred in Red Lake, Minnesota by Jeff Weise,” referring to the deaths of 10 people, eight of them at a school, in a shooting rampage in March 2005. “I must remind the world!”

    The letter ends with, “I will die. I have wanted to die for years. I’m sorry.”

    He’s not either.

    “I know I am insane. Ever since I was young, I knew there was something wrong with me,” the letter says. The writer calls himself “a depressed and traumatized individual.”

    The letter speaks of a father who is verbally abusive to the writer, his sisters and his mother. It speaks of the father hitting members of the family on occasion. “His threats and abuse took their toll on me,” the letter says.

    It also says the writer was shown pornography by a friend at 8 years old. “From that day on, I was disgusted with the world,” the letter says.

    Ok, but what the hell does that have anything to do with shooting at his old high school?

  • 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.