An 18-year-old Western Albemarle High School student was arrested on January 14 and charged with making threats to kill several fellow students.
According to the Daily Progress, authorities learned via an Internet conversation that Patrick Dittmar Crider allegedly planned to kill four specific students with a Glock before confessing his love for a girl, presumed to be his ex-girlfriend, and then turning the weapon on himself.
According to a letter County Schools Superintendent Pamela Moran sent to the parents of WAHS students, Crider was charged with one count of “threatening bodily injury by letter” and is being held at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail without the possibility of bail.
“The charges stem from an online chat with another Western Albemarle student,” writes Moran. “This conversation took place off school grounds and after school hours.”
Furthermore, Moran said that “through student intervention,” an administrator at WAHS was notified and, in turn, police were made aware of the threats.
Calls to Crider’s attorney, David Franzen, were not immediately returned.
