Calif. Shooting Shows Seriousness of 'Jokes'
March 6 -- The warning signs turned out to be no laughing matter.
In hindsight, friends and acquaintances of the 15-year-old alleged gunman, Charles "Andy" Williams, in the latest school shooting Monday say the warning signs were there.
They say the Santana High School freshman — often mocked as a "dork," "freak" and "nerd" by some of the other kids — talked about planning an attack at school days before Monday's deadly shooting spree. But even with the memory of the Columbine High School shooting, no one took the teenager seriously.
While a few were concerned enough to check him for weapons before class, they didn't check his backpack — where the gun used in the attack was allegedly hidden.
Now, two people are dead, 13 are recuperating from injuries, and Santana High School, near San Diego, has become synonymous with Columbine and Paducah. How did this happen?
"If he [the suspect] had said something to a professional — a teacher or a counselor — things would have probably worked out differently," said Howard Snyder, systems research director for the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh, Pa.
"They would have known to contact authorities. But kids say they're going to kill each other, beat each other up all the time … it's hard to distinguish when they're kidding," he said. "If authorities were asked to investigate every threat, they would be investigating a vast majority of kids."
Williams is in custody and is expected to be charged as an adult with murder, weapons and assault charges.
Police say he fired about 30 shots during the bloody spree, reloading his weapons four times along the way. During a search of his home late Monday, police found additional weapons and seized a computer.
”We have established no real motive for the shooting except people indicate that the suspect was mad and we don’t know if he was mad for any particular reason,” said Santee, Calif. police Lt. Jerry Lewis.
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