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Photo clerk tips off cops to potential massacre
De Anza College students spared from 'what could have been'
By Kevin Fayle
De Anza Community College and the city of Cupertino narrowly averted a tragedy of immense proportions Jan. 30, as the San Jose Police Department foiled an alleged plot by 19 year-old De Anza student Al DeGuzman to unleash an attack on the campus.
According to the San Jose Police Department (SJPD) DeGuzman had assembled 60 bombs and other incendiary devices, as well as two rifles and two sawed-off shotguns, and allegedly planned to attack De Anza's Campus Center by setting off bombs, starting fires and gunning down people at the center during the busy lunch hour.
At approximately 6 p.m. on Jan. 29, however, the SJPD received a call from Kelley Bennett, a clerk at the Longs Drugstore on Capitol Expressway in San Jose. Bennett said she had come across photographs taken by DeGuzman showing him posing with the bombs and firearms he had accumulated in his home in North San Jose. She alerted SJPD, who arrived on the scene moments before DeGuzman arrived to pick up the photographs. Bennett stalled DeGuzman until she had an opportunity to alert the officers in the next room to his presence. The officers then arrested DeGuzman and began the investigation that uncovered his alleged plot to attack De Anza the next day at around 12:30 p.m.
After obtaining search warrants for DeGuzman's room, the SJPD evacuated neighbors, and moved in extremely cautiously, because of concerns that DeGuzman may have booby-trapped the room. The SJPD had to handle the situation with maximum care, as the bombs were all live and "ready to go," according to Sgt. Mike Fernandez of the San Jose Bomb Squad. After securing the room, officers discovered documents outlining DeGuzman's alleged plans, which police believe he had worked on for close to two years.
The SJPD next alerted the Santa Clara Office of the Sheriff. "We received the call ... somewhere around 4 a.m.," said Sheriff's Public Information Officer Sgt. Mark Eastus.
The Sheriff's Office then passed the information along to De Anza College around 7 a.m. Then representatives from De Anza, the Sheriff, and SJPD met and discussed their next move.
"We decided that as a precautionary measure, De Anza should be searched. That's when De Anza was evacuated and we conducted a search for any incendiary devices," Eastus said.
De Anza sprang into action around 9:30 a.m., and began implementation of its emergency evacuation plan. The plan divides the campus into zones, and places managers in charge of evacuating each zone. After receiving a briefing about the situation, managers began to alert each classroom of the need for an orderly evacuation of the campus. The college also sent out voice mails to reach people who "were maybe sitting in their offices somewhere," says Janice Winkel of the De Anza Marketing Department.
The school also rushed to address the needs of its physically handicapped students, as well as the small children present at the Child Development Center.
"I know that our administrators were concerned about the physically limited students, and I think the logistics went ok," Winkel says. "Someone also went over right away to the Child Development Center to get all the preschool children out. A lot of parents had to be called about that."
Winkel credits the emergency plan, its execution by faculty and staff, and the assistance of law enforcement agencies for the quick evacuation.
Officers from the Sheriff's Office, the SJPD, the California Highway Patrol, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms all assisted in the evacuation, so "it didn't take very long to get the students off campus," Eastus says. "De Anza has a very good evacuation plan in place."
After everyone had left the campus, law enforcement agencies began to comb the area for any sign of explosives. "This was done as a precautionary measure, to make sure it wasn't like Columbine, where the guy went out and planted the bombs ahead of time," Eastus says. "We determined that he had not done that."
Authorities say DeGuzman had expressed sympathy for the Columbine shooters in his recovered diaries, and on a web site he designed.
The agencies employed bomb-sniffing dogs to search the college, and also relied on the expertise of officers experienced in locating bombs during the methodical search of the grounds. The search concluded around 6:45 p.m., according to Eastus, after officers determined there were no hidden bombs anywhere on De Anza's campus. "It was a long day," Eastus says.
Dr. Martha Kanter, President of De Anza College, expressed her "tremendous feeling of relief and thankfulness to Kelly Bennett, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, the San Jose Police Department, and the campus safety office, and many others who helped us through this difficult time." Kanter said she would have been in the Campus Center during the time of the scheduled attack, but that "you just have to get on with things, and that's what we're doing."
Kanter said De Anza distributed letters to faculty and staff campus mailboxes the day after the evacuation, which explained the facts surrounding the bomb scare, and also provided phone numbers for crisis counseling.
"Many of the teachers spent some time with the kids, talking about what happened," Kanter says, "but then we had to move on to teach the 2,000 courses that we offer this quarter."
Eastus said Sheriff's deputies will remain on campus for a few days, to reassure students of their safety and answer any questions they may have about the week's events.
Kanter also announced De Anza has established and endowed a scholarship fund for Bennett so that the school, the city of Cupertino, and members of the community who wish to express their gratitude may do so by helping to fund her education. Bennett attends San Jose State University. "We're going to be giving her this fund so she can continue her education, because that's the business we're in," Kanter said.
The college took a more immediate step to thank Bennett and law enforcement agencies on Feb. 1, by raising a banner in front of the campus center, expressing the school's gratitude for their help during its time of crisis.
As the banner went up, life went on as usual at De Anza: students sat at tables outside the student center, talking and playing hackey-sack. The uniformed Sheriff's deputies and news crews seemed strangely out of place, remaining grim reminder of what could have happened on Jan. 30.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
