The Associated Press
Flowers and notes adorn a makeshift memorial for victims of Monday's shooting at Santana High School in Santee, Calif.

Alleged school shooter 'an angry young man'

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTEE, Calif. -- Charles Andrew Williams was a new kid in a large school, a child from a broken home living with his father, a high school freshman who smoked marijuana and drank liquor at a skateboard park.

The 15-year-old boy known as "Andy" even talked about bringing a gun to school, although his friends passed it off as one of his frequent jokes.

Law enforcement authorities, neighbors and friends of Williams sifted through conflicting facts Tuesday for clues about what led the skinny freshman to allegedly open fire at his suburban high school a day earlier, indiscriminately killing two students and injuring 13 other people.

Williams, during interviews with San Diego County Sheriff's Department investigators, seemed angry but expressed no remorse for the shootings at Santana High School, Lt. Jerry Lewis said.

"We don't know if he was mad at the school, mad at students, mad at life, mad at home," Lewis said. "He was an angry young man."

Friends said the boy talked about his plans over the weekend, and they took him seriously enough to frisk him before school Monday.

The father of one friend even called Williams at home over the weekend to ask if there was anything to his talk of bringing a gun to school.

But no one seemed to believe the clean-cut kid.

Williams is expected to be arraigned today as an adult on charges that include murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

The Olympian Copyright 2000

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