Scorecard Of Hatred

By Amanda Bower

FOILED MAY 13, 1999 Port Huron, Mich. Their plan, police said, was to outdo Columbine perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold by arming themselves, forcing the principal of Holland Woods Middle School to call an assembly and then killing teachers, classmates and themselves. Jedaiah (David) Zinzo and Justin Schnepp, both 14, made a list of 154 targets, stole a building plan from the school custodian's office and plotted to use one gun to steal more. Classmates caught wind of the plot and reported it to the assistant principal. Zinzo and Schnepp were sentenced to four years' probation.

FOILED MAY 19, 1999 Anaheim, Calif. When police searched the homes of two eighth-graders at South Junior High, they found two bombs, bombmaking materials, a military-surplus rifle, a Ruger Blackhawk .45-cal. handgun, 1,500 rounds of ammunition and Nazi paraphernalia. They were tipped off by a student who heard that the boys, whose names were not released, were threatening to blow up the school.

MAY 20, 1999 Conyers, Ga. Thomas Solomon Jr., 15, aimed low with his stepfather's .22 rifle and wounded six fellow students at Heritage High School. WARNING SIGNS Solomon told classmates he would "blow up this classroom" and had no reason to live. He was being treated for depression and was teased by a popular sports player whom Solomon believed was the object of his girlfriend's affections.

FOILED AUG. 24, 1999 Northeast Florida Two teenagers were charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree murder after a teacher saw drawings, one of which depicted a bloody knife, a shotgun and an assault weapon. The teens allegedly described themselves as Satan worshippers and claimed they were planning to leave a deadlier trail than the one at Columbine. Charges were dropped for lack of evidence, and the boys were released from house arrest.

FOILED OCT. 28, 1999 Cleveland, Ohio Adam Gruber, 14, above, and John Borowski, Benjamin Balducci and Andy Napier, all 15, were white students planning a rampage at their mostly black school. It was to end, one of the boys' friends said, in a suicidal shoot-out with police, with one survivor to "bask in the glory." Officials were tipped off to the plot by another student's mother.

NOV. 19, 1999 Deming, N.M. Victor Cordova Jr., 12, fired one shot into the lobby of Deming Middle School and hit Araceli Tena, 13, in the back of the head. She died the next day. WARNING SIGNS Cordova reportedly boasted the day before the shooting that he would "make history blasting this school," but no adults were told. Since losing his mother to cancer, Cordova was reportedly suicidal.

DEC. 6, 1999 Fort Gibson, Okla. Seventh-grader Seth Trickey was a religious, straight-A student. But then, police say, he came to school, stood under a tree, pulled out his father's 9-mm semiautomatic handgun and fired at least 15 rounds into a group of classmates. Four were wounded. WARNING SIGNS A juvenile court heard that Trickey was receiving psychological counseling and was deeply influenced by the Columbine shootings. Psychologists said he was obsessed by the military, in particular General George S. Patton, and the shootings may have been Trickey's way of proving he could hold his own in battle.

FEB. 29, 2000 Mount Morris Township, Mich. A six-year-old boy, whose identity has not been released, left the crack house where he lived and went to school at Theo J. Buell Elementary. He called out to fellow first-grader Kayla Rolland, left, "I don't like you!" "So?" she said. The boy swung around and shot her with the loaded .32 semiautomatic handgun he had taken from home. Kayla died soon afterward. WARNING SIGNS The boy was reportedly made to stay after school nearly every day for violent behavior, attacking other children and cursing. His hellish home life--mother a drug addict, father in prison--had been the subject of complaints to police, but there was no response. On the day of the shooting, another student reported the boy was carrying a knife. It was confiscated, but he was not searched for other weapons.

FOILED MAY 18, 2000 Millbrae, Calif. A 17-year-old senior at Mills High School, whose name has not been released, was arrested after another student reported being threatened with a gun. Police said they found an arsenal of 15 guns and rifles, knives and ammunition at the boy's home, all apparently belonging to his father. In the eight months before his arrest, the boy had allegedly threatened seven other friends with guns and bragged he was going to "do a Columbine" at school. The victims said they were too scared to report the threats.

MAY 26, 2000 Lake Worth, Fla. Nathaniel Brazill, 13, was sent home for throwing water balloons. Police say he returned with a .25-cal. semiautomatic handgun, went into an English class and shot and killed teacher Barry Grunow, 35. WARNING SIGNS Brazill had apparently shown others the gun and talked about hit lists. In his bedroom, police say they found a letter he had written saying, "I think I might commit suicide."

OCT. 24, 2000 Glendale, Ariz. Sean Botkin dressed in camouflage, went to his old school, entered a math class and with a 9-mm handgun held hostage 32 former classmates and a teacher, police say. After an hour, the 14-year-old was persuaded to surrender. WARNING SIGNS Botkin said in a television interview last month that he was picked on, hated school, had a troubled family life and couldn't recall ever being truly happy. "Using a gun would get the attention more than just walking into school and saying, 'I need help' or something," he said.

JAN. 10, 2001 Oxnard, Calif. Richard Lopez, 17, had a history of mental illness, and police apparently believe he "had his mind made up to be killed by a police officer" when he marched onto the grounds of his old school, Hueneme High, took a girl hostage and held a gun to her head. Within five minutes of SWAT officers' arriving, he was shot dead. Lopez's sister said her brother had wanted to commit suicide, but his Catholic faith forbade it. WARNING SIGNS Family members said Lopez had been in and out of juvenile facilities and attempted suicide three times. "He needed help, and I cried out for it," his grandmother said.

FOILED JAN. 29, 2001 Cupertino, Calif. The Columbine gunmen were "the only thing that's real," according to De Anza College sophomore Al Joseph DeGuzman, 19. He allegedly planned to attack the school with guns and explosive devices. The day before, however, he apparently photographed himself with his arsenal and took the film for developing. The drugstore clerk alerted police.

FOILED FEB. 5, 2001 Hoyt, Kans. Police were alerted to Richard B. Bradley Jr., 18, Jason L. Moss, 17, and James R. Lopez, 16, by an anonymous hot-line tip. A search of their homes revealed bombmaking material, school floor plans, a rifle, ammunition and white supremacist drawings, police said. They also reportedly found three black trench coats similar to those worn by the Columbine gunmen.

FOILED FEB. 7, 2001 Fort Collins, Colo. Just 66 miles from Littleton, Chad Meiniger, 15, and Alexander Vukodinovich and Scott Parent, both 14, were allegedly hatching an elaborate plan to "redo Columbine." Police were tipped off by two female classmates of the boys, who said they had overhead them plotting. Officers say they found a weapons cache, ammunition and sketches of the school.

FOILED FEB. 11, 2001 Palm Harbor, Fla. Scott McClain, a 14-year-old eighth-grader, reportedly wrote a detailed e-mail to at least one friend describing his plans to make a bomb and possibly target a specific teacher at Palm Harbor Middle School. The friend's mother alerted sheriff's deputies, who said they found a partly assembled bomb in McClain's bedroom that would have had a "kill radius" of 15 ft.

FOILED FEB. 14, 2001 Elmira, N.Y. Jeremy Getman, an 18-year-old senior, passed a disturbing note to a friend, who alerted authorities. A police officer found Getman in Southside High School's cafeteria, reportedly with a .22-cal. Ruger semiautomatic and a duffel bag containing 18 bombs and a sawed-off shotgun. An additional eight bombs were allegedly found in his home.

MARCH 5, 2001 Santee, Calif. Charles Andrew Williams, 15, allegedly opened fire from a bathroom at Santana High, killing two and wounding 13. WARNING SIGNS Williams was bullied, a pot smoker, trying to fit in. He told at least a dozen people, including one adult, that there would be a shoot-out. When he later said he was joking,they believed him.

MARCH 7, 2001 Williamsport, Pa. Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, was threatened and teased mercilessly at her old school in Jersey Shore and transferred last spring to Bishop Neumann, a small Roman Catholic school. There she allegedly took her father's revolver into the cafeteria and shot Kimberly Marchese in the shoulder. WARNING SIGNS Bush was reportedly still being teased and was depressed. As she fired the gun, she allegedly said, "No one thought I would go through with this." It is unclear whether she had told anyone of her intentions.

FOILED MARCH 7, 2001 Twentynine Palms, Calif. Cori Aragon, left, with her mother, was one of 16 students at Monument High School in the Mojave Desert to discover that their names were allegedly on the hit list of two 17-year-old boys arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and civil rights violations. Tipped off by a female student who overheard the boys' plans, police said they found a rifle in one home, the list in the other. The boys' names were not released. This was the most serious case to follow the Santee shootings. But 14 other California children were either arrested or under observation for making threats. Around the U.S., dozens more copycat threats were reported.

--By Amanda Bower