Man Held in What Police Say Was Plot for College Campus Assault

Based on a tip from a drugstore clerk, San Jose police arrested a 19-year-old student who detectives say was planning to launch a Columbine-style assault Tuesday on a community college, armed with pipe bombs, rifles and 2000 rounds of ammunition.

Al Joseph DeGuzman, who attended De Anza College, was arrested Monday evening, and police later found, at the home he shares with his parents, an extensive arsenal, a diagram of the Cupertino campus and notes on the planned attack, a spokesman said.

Detectives said they also found an audiotape on which DeGuzman expressed admiration and sympathy for the two youths who carried out the attack at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999. The Columbine rampage left 15 people dead, including the gunmen.

“He said he felt they were heroes,� said Sgt. Steve Dixon, a police spokesman. “He said he was going to go out the same way and was going to kill as many students and staff as he could in the process.�

Dixon said DeGuzman apparently had planned the attack for as long as two years and intended to launch it at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, during the busy lunch hour at the college’s main cafeteria. The college has 28,000 registered students, officials said.

“He had a pretty elaborate game plan,� Dixon said.

News of the foiled attack prompted authorities to evacuate the 112-acre De Anza campus, about 10 miles west of San Jose. Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies and other officials conducted a daylong search, but found no devices or other evidence.

Dixon said police were tipped off to DeGuzman’s arsenal about 6 p.m. Monday by a young woman, the daughter of a police officer, who works as a photo lab clerk at a local Longs drugstore. The young woman called police after developing photos of DeGuzman posing with his arsenal.

DeGuzman arrived at the store to pick up his photos before the police got there, Dixon said. “She did an excellent job. She stalled him for a few minutes, asking him for identification,� he said.

DeGuzman turned to leave as uniformed officers approached. He tried to walk away but was detained inside the store without a struggle, Dixon said.

DeGuzman initially told police the weapons in the photos were not real. But when officers searched his room at his parents’ home at 2:30 a.m., they discovered 30 pipe bombs--some primitive but some fairly sophisticated--20 Molotov cocktails, four rifles, a sawed-off shotgun and the cache of ammunition, Dixon said. They also found the recording, on which DeGuzman apologized to his family and friends, and an extensive plan of the attack, he said.

“It’s a step-by-step chronicle of his plan, that he was going to wake up at 3 a.m. and at 4:30 a.m., that he would start planting the bombs,� Dixon said.

“He was leaving a record for history.�

DeGuzman’s parents told police they respected his privacy and never entered his bedroom. A young woman who answered the phone at the home Tuesday said the family would have no comment.

DeGuzman faces charges of possession of bomb-making materials and possession of a sawed-off shotgun and was being held at the Santa Clara County Jail on $100,000 bail. He had no criminal record, Dixon said.

Detectives have not yet determined whether the student was acting alone, although they said the number of weapons involved and the length of time he had apparently been planning the attack makes it possible he had accomplices.

As for a specific motivation, Dixon said police do not know. “There was nothing on the tape about that: no breakup with a girlfriend, no failing grades, nothing like that,� he said. “He was just fascinated with Columbine and wanted to go out the same way.�