Just in case you didn't already know this, a Long's Drugs Store employee
foiled a Columbine-style massacre yesterday. A young girl developing
photographs at a local Long's in San Jose saw the developing photos, was
shocked by them, and called her father, who was on the police force.

They arrested the photographer, a 19-year-old named Al DeGuzman, as he was
standing there waiting for the photographs to be returned to him. The Long's
employee stalled him until her father could arrive.

This all goes to show that the people you hire in an organization really do
matter, right, Donna? :-).

There are a fair number of people alive today who wouldn't be otherwise
because of this Long's employee.

Wirt Atmar


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CUPERTINO, Calif. (Reuters) - A last-minute tip from a drug store photo clerk
helped police thwart what they called a plot for a "Columbine-style" attack
at a California college Tuesday -- averting a potential bloodbath at the
school's main cafeteria.

"This was an elaborate plan for a mass murder -- no other way to put it," San
Jose Deputy Police Chief Mike Miceli told a news conference after a tense
morning which saw De Anza College evacuate its campus in Cupertino, about 45
miles south of San Francisco.

Police announced they had arrested a suspect, identified  as 19-year-old Al
DeGuzman, and uncovered a cache of arms including two rifles, one sawed-off
shotgun, a large amount of ammunition, and more than 60 explosive devices
ranging from pipe bombs to Molotov cocktails.

DeGuzman was reportedly a student at De Anza, a single-campus community
college with an enrollment of 26,000 students. Police said he did not appear
to have a criminal record, and identified no motive for the alleged plot.

But they said he had left a recording indicating sympathy with the teenage
gunmen who killed 15 people, including themselves, during a shooting rampage
at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999 -- making him apparently the
latest in a growing list of angry  U.S. students who have sought to take
vengeance on their schools through the barrel of a gun.

"He had his act together...and he was very much intent on what he was going
to do," Miceli said.

Miceli said a search of DeGuzman's room at his parents' San Jose, Calif.,
home had turned up a diary and an audio tape indicating he may have been
planning the alleged attack for up to two years.

They said the alleged assault -- described as a "Columbine-style attack"  --
had been due to begin at 12:30 p.m. PST (3:30 p.m. EST) Tuesday, centered on
the main campus cafeteria.

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