A Western Albemarle High School student has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill students, though his lawyer says facts will show he was harmless.
Patrick Dittmar Crider, of 1570 Derby Lane, was arrested Jan. 14, according to police records. He’s been charged with threatening to kill or harm someone on school property, a felony, according to an arrest warrant.
According to affidavits requesting search warrants, authorities learned of a Jan. 13 Internet conversation in which someone, believed to be Crider, threatened to use a Glock to shoot four specific students the next day, then declare his love for a girl and shoot himself in the head.
Glock manufactures a popular line of semi-automatic pistols.
“I’m getting retribution for them taking my life away,” reads one of the statements police used in the affidavit.
Bruce Benson, assistant superintendent for operations and systems planning, said it was his understanding that Crider was not in school the next day.
At 5 p.m. that day, police arrested Crider. He is being held in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail without the possibility of bail.
“It’s a difficult situation,” said his attorney, David B. Franzen. “He’s young, and it is not a situation that he’s at all been familiar with or had any experience with. But, under the circumstances, he’s coping rather well.
“Our hope is that, when the entire story is made known, people will understand the context and people will understand that this young man is not a threat of any kind to anybody.”
An administrator alerted the police to the situation after being told about the Internet conversation, which happened after-hours and off school grounds, Benson said.
“We want all of our kids to feel like, if there’s a danger, … they can go to a teacher or an administrator in their building and have an expectation that their concerns will be taken seriously and will be investigated appropriately, and I think that that absolutely happened here,” Benson said.
The administrator also immediately contacted the students named in the threat and their parents, Benson said.
Threats are subject both to legal and school disciplinary action, he said.
Crider is scheduled to appear in court in Albemarle County on Feb. 18.
A call to the Crider family home Wednesday evening was not returned by press time.
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