PBS News Hour has released an interview with Charles “Andy” Williams reflecting on why he committed the deadly 2001 shootings at Santana High School in Santee.
Williams was 15 nearly 12 years ago when he walked onto the Santana campus with a loaded .22-caliber handgun taken from his father’s locked gun cabinet, and opened fire.
Miles O’Brien spoke by phone to Williams from Ironwood Prison, where he is serving a life sentence for killing two students and wounding 13.
PBS New Hour said they conducted the interview in an effort to find out what goes on in the mind of someone who does a rampage shooting.
“I can’t really give any insights into all these people that went out and did all these mass shootings,” Williams said. “In my mind, it’s not really the same thing.
“My grand plan was suicide by cop.”
When asked how thoughts of suicide turned to hurting someone else, he said he had no coherent thought process at the time.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn’t comprehend the finality of the wrongness—that there would be severe and lifelong consequences,” he said.
“I didn’t really think two boys were going to die and 13 people would get shot.”
Williams said he was addicted to drugs at the time, faced bullying at school and abuse at the hands of a friend’s stepfather.
“I just wanted to get away from everyone and not be there anymore,” Williams said.
He shows remorse in the interview and tells the two families that lost sons that he is sorry and always will be.
Williams said he thinks it is possible to identify kids that might be prone to such violent attacks, saying there were a handful of red flags in his case.
Read more about the Santana shooting in a collection of stories published on the 10th anniversary of the attack.
Maybe listening to his thought now will help psychiatrists in the future, provide better care for those in need, and prevent a like incident from happening. Many people have experienced or been part of tragedy, but hatred is not the answer. You all need to try to make something good happen out of your knowledge. You will heal much faster and be able to cope with life more successfully.
I interviewed approximately 12 people that were present at this event including four staff members, the head coaches of both teams, two extremely involved and distinguished parents, a campus supervisor, and three students from the cheering section in question. Findings: this will be in 3 parts has too many words
The supervision for this game was not adequate. Tim Barry, the Santana Head Basketball Coach acted appropriately inside of the gymnasium in regards to his interaction and behavior with the officials (even with a technical foul being issued early in the first quarter). I have no findings for the alleged incidents involving Coach Barry and the officials outside of the gymnasium. There was a bottle thrown in the direction of an official and the Santana Assistant Coach outside of the gym while they were heading to the boy’s locker room. I have no findings for the fan that allegedly confronted the official during the game. The majority of the people that I interviewed had no recollection or a vague recollection of that incident.
Summation: The Santana Student Section has been addressed and appropriate consequences given to those students known to be involved. This is the first incident of poor behavior by the Santana Student Section, which has attended nearly all home boys’ basketball games in large numbers. Richard Trisby was a catalyst for the poor behavior exhibited by Santana’s Student Section. A plan has been put in place for Saturday Non-Conference games where Administrative Supervision is not required per District Policy. The team manager responsible for letting the officials into the boy’s locker room is mentally retarded. He is sometimes forgetful and untimely with his responsibilities. Should you have any questions ; you may contact me by phone at (619) 956-0221 or by e-mail at loedewaldt@guhsd.net. Larry Oedewaldt Assistant Principal Santana high School
All that indicates you were bullied and the way you dealt with it was with fist fights. That is not taking responsibility, that was YOU GOING FOR RETRIBUTION. After the fist fights you may have decided your actions were inappropriate, but it doesn’t change the fact that you tried to retaliate. You may have been punished, and you accepted that punishment, but it doesn’t mean you can change the fact of your original reaction to fight back. After the fact responsibility doesn’t change what you did, nor does it absolve you from the action. Your unwillingness to accept the fact that Santana students could not, and/or did not, behave improperly towards the cheerleaders when confronted with several accounts of the incident, indicates you don’t even accept that bullying takes place. In my opinion that means tacit approval. I am only trying to explain how your words came across to me. Take it for what it is worth to you. I may be totally off-base but its what I read and thought at the time.