Classmate of Klebold and Harris accused of threatening to 'finish job'

By Kevin Vaughan and Holly Kurtz
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writers

JEFFERSON COUNTY -- Authorities Wednesday accused a classmate of the Columbine High killers of threatening to "finish the job."

Investigators seized a diagram of the school and other writings from the 17-year-old senior, who last year helped Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold produce videos foreshadowing their violent assault on Columbine. Police wouldn't say if they seized any weapons.

Bail was set at $500,000 on a felony charge of inciting destruction of life or property and a misdemeanor charge of theft. The teen's name was not released because of his age.

The Tuesday afternoon arrest was the talk of Columbine High Wednesday -- six months to the day after Harris and Klebold gunned down 12 students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 others.

Twenty-five percent of Columbine's 1,800 students didn't show up for class, and by the end of the day another quarter had gone home early.

Some parents had been notified of the arrest Tuesday evening. "He didn't seem like a kid that would do anything dangerous," said fellow student Jeffrey DiManna, 18, who was in the video class last year with the boy.

DiManna said the teen spent a lot of time with Harris and Klebold.

"They sat at the same table in class," he said. "They were always together."

The boy is scheduled to return to court Friday. He was held in the Jefferson County jail before a judge Wednesday ordered him moved to a youth detention center.

The boy's family declined to comment. He is under a suicide watch, county officials said.

Jefferson County sheriff's officials said the boy told another student he would "finish the job started by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold."

Randy Brown, whose son Aaron is a junior at Columbine, said he got a phone message Tuesday evening from Principal Frank DeAngelis notifying him of the 17-year-old's arrest.

Brown, who got his call at 6:15 p.m., said the principal indicated school officials first became aware last Thursday of threats made against Columbine. The five-day delay angered him.

"I think it was irresponsible that we were not notified earlier," Brown said. "I don't think the school administration should decide if a bomb threat is serious.

"That's a parent's right, especially after April 20. I didn't abdicate my right to protect my children to Mr. DeAngelis and the sheriff's department.

"They failed in the past."

Not all parents received the Tuesday call, a letter students brought home from school Wednesday or a posting about the threats on a Columbine information hotline.

Among those who had yet to receive a message from the school were the mothers of shooting victims Mark Kintgen and Richard Castaldo.

"I was upset to think they didn't tell us about it," said Kay Kintgen, who heard of the threats by chance at a Tuesday night meeting on coping with the effects of trauma.

The school added security guards Wednesday. But one in four students were missing that morning. Half were absent by afternoon. School officials quietly decided all absences would be excused.

School counselors were extremely busy, said Marguerite McCormack, Columbine Connections clinical supervisor.

"We know that grief reactions are exacerbated when anniversaries come about," she said.

Among those absent Wednesday was senior Sean Graves, who suffered a spinal cord injury after being shot multiple times April 20.

He stayed home with three friends Wednesday and baked chocolate chip cookies. He said he wasn't scared to go to school, just "uncomfortable."

"I didn't want to risk it," he said.

Jen Doyle, who was shot in the hand April 20, also stayed home.

"It's kind of hard every month around the 20th," Doyle said. "It's a little weird. It brings back memories."

Among the shooting victims who went to school Wednesday were Richard Castaldo, Anne Marie Hochhalter, Pat Ireland and Mark Kintgen.

For Kintgen, Wednesday was just another day.

For his mother, it was a cause for concern.

She tried to distract herself by sorting doctor bills and insurance papers from her son's April 20 injuries.

It didn't work.

"I'm real confused about my own feelings about this," she said.

The 17-year-old who was arrested started hanging around Harris a year ago, said Nate Dykeman, a friend of the killers who now lives in Florida.

"He did a lot of filming for video class," Dykeman said of the boy.

In an interview with the Denver Rocky Mountain News the day after the shooting, the 17-year-old suspect said he gave investigators several of the videos he helped produce with Harris and Klebold.

"They always were the same kind of videos," the boy said April 21. "They always wore trench coats. They always wanted to be the intimidators, the good guys out to get the bad guys."

He said he immediately thought of Harris and Klebold when he heard about the shooting.

"I guess yesterday they finally decided not to take any more crap and to get back at people," he said April 21.

Additional reporting by News staff writers Dan Luzadder, Bill Scanlon and Lynn Bartels.