Friday, April 28, 2000
Ky. man charged in e-mail threats
Claimed to plan attack on school in Colorado
By
The Associated Press
VERSAILLES, Ky. — A 23-year-old Versailles man has been charged with using the Internet to threaten to blow up a Colorado school to mark the anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado a year ago.
Internet messages from the online name “Schoolshooter-2000” were electronically traced to Philip M. Tkacz, authorities said.
Police said they found an assault rifle, a handgun and an instruction manual on how to make a pipe bomb Mr. Tkacz's basement.
FBI investigators said “Schoolshooter-2000” portrayed himself as a teen-ager in Colorado who was organizing an assault at a high school there.
An online profile listed his hobbies as “guns, pipe bombs, getting even and bowling,” the FBI said. The user of that screen name also said he belongs to a support group for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Colorado teen-agers who killed themselves after shooting 12 classmates and one teacher.
FBI spokesman Phillip Doty said Wednesday he could not comment on whether the FBI thinks Mr. Tkacz intended to carry out an attack on a school or was making idle threats. “We don't want to get into speculation. ... That would require us to be mind readers,” he said.
Russ Baldani of Lexington, Mr. Tkacz's lawyer, said that because he had just been retained as attorney, he could not comment on the case.
Mr. Tkacz's mother, Carole, said relatives are overwhelmed.
“He's a very caring young man,” she said. “He has a family who loves him very much, and we're behind him 100 percent.”
The FBI originally thought the threat came from someone in Denver, but shifted its attention to Kentucky after search warrants served on Yahoo and another Internet service provider yielded evidence pointing to Mr. Tkacz. Agents eventually found Mr. Tkacz using phone numbers and information from the U.S. Postal Service.
Mr. Tkacz was arrested Tuesday and appeared in court Wednesday to have the charges formally read to him. He didn't enter a plea and remained in the custody of U.S. marshals.
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