Tag: Alvaro Rafael Castillo

  • Alvaro Castillo’s MySpace

    Alvaro Castillo’s MySpace

    Suspect’s Web page offers a glimpse of his life:

    This is an article from the newspaper that Alvaro Castillo sent the video to about Castillo’s MySpace. I’ve been looking for his MySpace since the story broke. Anyway, on to the article…

    Handguns, shotguns and rifles.

    Those are what Alvaro Castillo listed as his general interests on his Myspace.com page.

    He also wrote that he likes cooking, cleaning, singing and target practice.

    Under Alvaro’s “pics” is a photograph that depicts him holding a pair of scissors above another male’s head as if he was going to stab him. The caption reads, “Attempted Murder. Are you scared? Ha ha.”

    The 19-year-old lists his heroes on his site. They include “God, Mom, Dad, Victoria…”

    Let’s stop right there for a second. If his dad was his hero, why did he kill him?

    He also writes that he would most like to meet John Hinckley Jr., Tom Hanks, Michael Moore and God.

    I can see why he’d want to meet John Hinckley, since they’re both batshit crazy gunmen. I wonder why he wanted to meet Fatboy, though. And he may just get his wish in that last one.

    Also on his MySpace, he lists Bowling for Columbine as one of his favorite movies. I think that movie has helped in more school shootings than it tried to prevent.

    You can see Alvaro Castillo’s MySpace for yourself.

  • Why Castillo was kicked out of The Guard

    Why Castillo was kicked out of The Guard

    Suspect in school attack, father’s murder obsessed with Columbine:

    Another detail in the case of Alvaro Castillo. This time the reason of why he was being processed out of the National Guard…

    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.

    The Guard declined to comment on why Castillo was medically disqualified, citing confidentiality laws.

    But according to court records released Thursday, Castillo was involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital on April 20 – the seventh anniversary of the Columbine attack – after he told his family he was going to kill himself with a shotgun.

    Deputies took him into custody and “he stated that he was not going to go back into the Army and was going to kill himself,” an affidavit attached to the commitment order said.

    Castillo was released from the hospital eight days later, according to court records.

    I wonder what made him change his mind about The Guard. I mean, besides the fact that he’s nuts. Anyway, that shoots my theory down about being released from The Guard as the trigger event.

  • Excerpts from Castillo tape that weren’t released

    Excerpts from Castillo tape that weren’t released

    Teen tapes confession to killing:

    The Raleigh News and Observer report on material from the Castillo videos that they did not release…

    HILLSBOROUGH – On a homemade video, Alvaro Castillo confesses to shooting his father four times, then walks into a room and records the sheet-draped corpse.

    “Look at me. I’m not even crying. I just killed him, and I feel fine,” the Hillsborough teenager says into the camera.

    “I’m not afraid anymore,” he says in the video’s final scene. “I have to die.”

    The tape, along with a handwritten letter, arrived at the office of The Chapel Hill News on Thursday, the day after Castillo was arrested and charged with a shooting at Orange High School, and told sheriff’s deputies he had killed his father.

    In the video, Castillo holds the camera close to his face and says he plans to kill himself and his father. Later, the teenager records a body slumped on a sofa. Two bare legs stick out from under a blood-flecked sheet.

    Most of the hour-plus video shows Castillo aiming the camera at a small television playing violent movies. They include “Scarface,” “Predator,” “The Shining,” “Natural Born Killers” and a documentary, “Zero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High.”

    Castillo narrates the violence, sometimes chiming in word-for-word with actors. He repeatedly uses the mute button to silence profanity.

    Grisly scenes prompt a throaty laugh.

    “Beautiful,” Castillo says, during “Scarface’s” final bloody scene, when the lead character floats dead in a swimming pool.

    On the video, Castillo notes that he first watched these movies when he was 8 to 10 years old. He taped them, he says, to show how violent the world is.

    Castillo also says on the video that his father slapped — but never punched — his head, back and rear. His father disciplined his mother “like a child,” he says.

    The letter also claims abuse: “His threats and abuse took their toll on me.”

    In another scene, Castillo cocks a shotgun and puts the barrel in his mouth, then points it at the camera. The word “Arlene” is written on a scrap of paper taped to the weapon.

    Castillo says his suicide would be “the perfect instant killing.”

    Near the end of the video, Castillo addresses the parents of the students he plans to kill, displaying a shotgun shell and a 9 mm bullet. He encourages parents to shoot themselves and reunite with their children in the afterlife.

    “Once again, parents, I’m sorry about this. I’m sorry about the pain you’ll go through,” Castillo says. “If you want to be with your children, go with them.”

    Castillo pants in front of the camera, describing his father’s killing.

    Before turning off the camera, he says, “It’s time.”

    I also have to commend the N&O for their decision not to post the entire video…

    We were selective, however. We decided not to do what Castillo had asked in his letter — simply make the tape public and allow him, in the letter writer’s mind, to join the high school violence pantheon. Instead, we chose the four brief clips that illustrated the progress of the video and complemented the rest of our reporting.

    We did not excerpt the graphic sections of the video (where he shows the camera his father’s body, for instance) or scenes where he clearly seeks to glamorize his actions.

    We will not post the entire video, nor will we give copies to other media. We will work with the AP to make one of the excerpts available to other news outlets.

  • Alvaro Castillo’s videos

    Alvaro Castillo’s videos

    Here are the videos that Alvaro Castillo sent to a local paper.

    If YouTube pulls them, (Which they did) they can also be found here.

  • Never Anticipated

    Never Anticipated

    Murder Suspect Sent Video to Newspaper:

    More on Alvaro Castillo’s Columbine obsession and the failure of anyone to do anything about it…

    Investigators say Castillo was obsessed with Columbine. During a search of the Castillo home on Lipps Lane in Hillsborough, deputies found a diary entitled “Mass Murders and School Shootings of the 20th and 21st Centuries,” as well as directions to the homes of the Columbine school shooters.

    Eyewitness News has learned that the Castillo family knew of this obsession, saying Alvaro Castillo identified with the deep depression of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, but never anticipated it could lead to violence.

    I apologize to the family for giving them grief at a time like this, but what did they think this obsession could lead to?

    This should serve as a warning to parents who have kids that look up to school shooters as heroes. It’s not just a phase. It’s an unnatural lifestyle that could get them or someone else killed.

  • 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.