Boy Threatens Class With Guns

Updated 6:44 AM ET December 15, 1999
By RACHEL LA CORTE, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) – A 14-year-old boy walked into his high school biology class with two guns, ordered the teacher out and declared “this is how we’re going to do things.” He put a bullet into one weapon before surrendering without incident.

The boy was persuaded to put down the weapons by three teachers who entered the classroom to talk to him. The incident was over in five minutes Tuesday and no one was hurt.

The student later said he needed help, telling police that he only wanted respect and to stop being picked on.

Authorities credited the emergency crisis plan at Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School with helping diffuse a potentially violent situation.

“This could have been a terrible, terrible disaster,” said Miami Police Lt. Bill Schwartz.

The student, Richard Dalco Jr., returned to the classroom after getting permission to go to his locker. He walked in with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and a black gym bag with a .25-caliber pistol and ammunition.

“This is how we’re going to do things,” the student said, putting down his bag and putting a bullet in the semiautomatic pistol.

He then pointed both guns in the air and ordered teacher Heather Gillingham out of the room, Schwartz said. About 30 students remained.

Then the school’s staff acted on its emergency training. A secret code went out over the intercom system to alert teachers about the emergency. A fire alarm went off and the school’s students were evacuated to the gym.

The three teachers then went to the classroom to talk with Dalco. The teen apologized and said he needed help.

The Archdiocese of Miami has a plan for responding to emergency situations that covers all 64 of its schools in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties, spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said.

Schwartz said the plan “worked like a charm.”

Dalco was charged with possession of a firearm on school property, possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, armed kidnapping and aggravated assault.

It wasn’t immediately known where the youth got the weapons

Also Tuesday, police in Fullerton, Calif., arrested a 14-year-old boy who allegedly planned to kill people at his junior high in an effort to duplicate the April slayings at Columbine High School in Colorado.

The teen-ager had an elaborate map of Ladera Vista Junior High School, including an escape route, and detailed plans for evading the law in the days after the attack, Sgt. Joe Klein said.

He did not have any weapons, Klein said. Authorities, who learned of the alleged plan after students alerted their principal, detained the boy for investigation of solicitation to commit a felony.

The teen, whose name was not released because of his age, told police he was influenced by newspaper articles and videotapes about the Columbine shooting where two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.

“He told other students and police officers that this would bring him a great deal of notoriety and attention,” Klein said.