Police Thwart 'Columbine-Style' Campus Assault

C U P E R T I N O, Calif., Jan. 30, 2001 -- Based on a tip from a drug store photo lab clerk, police arrested a 19-year-old San Jose man they said planned to carry out a "Columbine-style attack" on a local community college with 30 pipe bombs, 20 Molotov cocktails and other weapons.

Police arrested Al DeGuzman, a student at De Anza College, on Monday evening and found the arsenal of bombs and booby traps at the house where he lived with his parents.

Police also found a tape recording on which they said DeGuzman expressed sympathy with the two teenagers who killed 13 people and themselves at Colorado's Columbine High School in April 1999.

They said they also found a diagram of the De Anza campus and other notes indicating that DeGuzman intended to begin planting bombs at 4:30 a.m. today and then spring his attack at 12:30 p.m. in the school's main cafeteria. Police said they thought he had been planning the attack for two years.

"This was an elaborate plan for a mass murder," said San Jose Deputy Police Chief Mike Miceli. "He had a game plan and was very intent on doing what he was going to do."

Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies and other officials evacuated the campus at De Anza, a community college with 25,000 students about 10 miles east of San Jose, at 9 a.m. today.

Police offered no motive for the alleged plan and said they believe DeGuzman has no prior criminal record.

He faces charges on 30 counts of possession of an explosive device, 20 counts of possession of a firebomb, and two counts of possession of an illegal weapon, for having a sawed-off shotgun and rifle. He was being held at the Santa Clara County jail.

DeGuzman will not likely be arraigned until Wednesday afternoon, said Tom Farris, assistant Santa Clara County district attorney.

Posed With an Arsenal

Miceli said San Jose police learned of DeGuzman's arsenal at 6 p.m. Monday when a girl who worked at a local Longs Drug store called police after developing photos of DeGuzman posing with his arsenal. The girl's father is a San Jose police officer.

Miceli gave the following account of what happened next:

As San Jose police responded to the call, DeGuzman came into the store to pick up his photos. The girl — whose name was not released — stalled him, asking for identification.

DeGuzman turned to leave just as officers were approaching. He tried to run, but was caught inside the store.

Police searched his parents' one-story house around 11 p.m. In DeGuzman's bedroom they found some 60 explosive devices, as well as the diagram and recording. Police said on the tape, DeGuzman also apologized to his parents, friends and the U.S. media.

"The tape recording was just bone chilling," Miceli said.

DeGuzman's parents told police they respected his privacy and never entered the bedroom.

Phone messages left at the DeGuzman house were not returned and a woman who came to the door said the family had no comment.

Law enforcement officials from several agencies, including bomb squads and a SWAT team, closed and evacuated the college this morning.

Some 10,000 students and 1,000 staff were forced off campus, according to De Anza President Martha Kanter, who said the school experienced a false bomb threat and evacuation last year.

Kanter said neither she not her staff knew DeGuzman.

"He didn't stand out in a crowd, unfortunately," Kanter said.

Police ordered the evacuation because they wanted to ensure DeGuzman had not already placed any bombs and that he did not have an accomplice, said Cary Colla, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

Suspect a 'Choir Boy,' Says Neighbor

Colla said San Jose Police did not notify the sheriff's office of the possible threat at De Anza until 7 a.m.

By midday, sheriff's deputies began searching each structure on the 65-building campus. De Anza covers 112 acres — about the size of 85 football fields.

"You would think you go to college and you would be safe, but safety is such an illusion nowadays," said Mike Utterback, a 24-year-old De Anza sophomore.

Meanwhile, DeGuzman's neighbors said he was an unassuming kid from a clean-cut household.

"He's a choir boy, like a straight-up school boy," said 18-year-old Bobby Playa, a neighbor who attends Independence High School, where DeGuzman was one of five yearbook editors in the 1998-99 school year.

Other boys crowded outside the house with reporters agreed — they said they thought he was going to grow up to become an engineer.