Thank God they stopped him before he got to do more…
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – 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.
Castillo had pipe bombs and weapons in his van when he was arrested in front of Orange High School after the two students were wounded in the parking lot shooting Wednesday. One student was grazed by a bullet and other was injured by flying glass. It wasn’t clear what Castillo planned to do with the other weapons.
When he was taken into custody, he told deputies he had killed his father, Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said.
Castillo was charged with murder after deputies forced their way into the family’s home and found the teenager’s father, Rafael Huezo Castillo, had been shot to death. It was unclear when the killing took place.
School district spokeswoman Anne D’Annunzio said an armed man “flew” past the school parking lot’s guard house in a gray minivan at 1 p.m. and fired about eight shots.
Courtney Long, a senior at the school, told The News & Observer the shooter, in a black hat, black trench coat and black sunglasses, jumped from the minivan, set off a line of firecrackers, shot at car tires and shot out a window in the school building.
Another senior, Scott Cook, was outside when he heard a blast and turned to see the man 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,” Cook told the newspaper.
Tiffaney Utsman, a senior, was grazed on her right shoulder by a bullet. An unidentified male student was hurt by broken glass, D’Annunzio said. Utsman was treated at a hospital and released Wednesday evening.
“My feeling about Tiffaney is absolute relief that she really was not hurt at all,” said her mother, Champe Revis.
Students were temporarily barred from leaving both the high school and nearby C.W. Stanford Middle School for their safety, D’Annunzio said.
Denning Best, a high school freshman, was in the cafeteria. “I saw people running away and all the teachers were telling us it was a lockdown,” she said. “It was a little bit freaky.”
The school planned to hold a normal day Thursday, with extra security and a crisis team available.
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.
Tanya Horne, standing across the street from the road to the Castillo home, said she didn’t know either father or son but had lived in the area most of her life and described it as “very quiet.”
“We have fallen asleep with our door open,” she said. “Nobody bothers you.”
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We’ll see what comes of this story. The only thing that bothers me is the last line.
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