Raphael Enrique Amoroso, Oregon Man With Sniper Book, Had Made Threats Against Teachers, Students
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- A Oregon man facing charges that he had a loaded pistol at a high school after a football game had written a note on a desk when he was in high school saying he wanted to kill as many teachers and students as he could, according to federal court documents filed Thursday.
The 1999 note was cited in documents filed in U.S. District Court by prosecutors who want to keep Raphael Enrique Amoroso, 26, of Grants Pass, behind bars while he awaits trial on charges of having a gun on school grounds and being a drug user in possession of a firearm.
"The defendant's father stated that he believed his son needed mental help and counseling, and that he had concerns about the paraphernalia that he was collecting and reading," prosecutors wrote. "Defendant has a history of threatening behavior and this most recent case is an escalation and is most concerning for public safety."
Court documents said Grants Pass police provided a report about contacting Amoroso in January 1999 after he admitted writing a note on a classroom desk that read, "I want to take a gun to school and blow away the faculty. When I am done with that, I'll systematically kill every student I can."
The detention hearing scheduled for Thursday was postponed until Monday at the request of Amoroso's lawyer. Federal public defender Tonia Moro wrote in a motion that prosecutors did not provide her with evidence gathered in the case until the day of the hearing, and they amended the criminal complaint just hours before the hearing was to start.
A self-employed landscaper, Amoroso was arrested on drunken driving charges after leaving a Grants Pass High School parking lot shortly before midnight Oct. 7. Police said he admitted smoking marijuana, and a breath test showed he was also drunk. In his car, police found marijuana, a loaded .45-caliber pistol, 200 rounds of rifle ammunition, binoculars, a camouflage jacket, and the novel "Enemies Foreign and Domestic," which tells a story about a sniper attack at a professional football game staged to bring about a ban on semiautomatic rifles.
A week later, police searched the house where Amoroso lives with his mother, finding a collection of vintage military rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, two military sniper manuals, and a variety of books that included "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler and "OK BOMB!- Conspiracy and Cover-up" by Jim Kerith, according to an affidavit filed with the new criminal complaint.
Authorities also found a printout from a website about picking what kind of terrorist to be, a note about combining chemicals to produce an explosive, armor-piercing bullet tips, a bulletproof vest, a helmet, and an inch-thick piece of steel with an armor-piercing bullet stuck in it.
A court document cited an interview with Amoroso's father, who told authorities about his son being arrested in 2000 for shooting a pellet gun at a passing jet boat loaded with tourists on the Rogue River when he was 15, and being ordered by a judge to undergo counseling.
