School killing stuns suburbs

SUDBURY -- A 16-year-old sophomore accused of fatally stabbing a freshman at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School yesterday frequently boasted about his knowledge of weapons and violent crime, and once asked a teacher for acid so he could build a bomb, fellow students said.

John Odgren , who was charged with killing James Alenson , 15, had long endured the taunts of schoolmates, who belittled him for wearing a trench coat in the halls, like the killers of Columbine High School.

"He was just a really sketchy kid," said junior Brianna Hodge , 16, of Sudbury. "He was always making references to killings and weapons and bombs."

John Ritchie , the school's principal and superintendent of the school district, declined to comment last night on whether school officials had been aware of Odgren's alleged interest in violence and long history of psychological problems.

Odgren's lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro , said the teenager had been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a mild form of autism, and had been taking several medications. Odgren had no criminal record and had never acted violently before, Shapiro said.

"The defendant has a history of fairly serious psychological diagnoses and has also suffered from hyperactivity dysfunction for many years," Shapiro said at Odgren's arraignment. "What is clear is John has a serious disability."

Shapiro asked that Odgren be sent to Children's Hospital Boston for a psychological evaluation, but the judge rejected the request.

The slaying occurred about 7:20 a.m. after an argument erupted in a boys' bathroom, just as students were arriving for classes.

Minutes later in the hallway outside, horrified teachers found Alenson face down, his shirt soaked in blood.

Isabel Zuckoff , 17, a senior at the high school, told the Globe she was sitting in an administrator's office across from the bathroom where Alenson was stabbed, working quietly when she heard people scream, "Call 911!"

A staff member led Odgren into an office, clutching his arm, and put him in a side room with the door ajar, she said. "On the way in, he said something along the lines of, 'I didn't mean to. It was a mistake,' " Zuckoff said.

When police officers arrived minutes later, they confronted Odgren, who told them bluntly, "I did it. I did it," according to a police report. "Is he OK?" Odgren asked, his hands and clothing covered in blood. "I don't want him to die."

Inside the bathroom, officers found a long, bloody knife.

Alenson, who had suffered two stab wounds to the abdomen with one reaching his heart, was pronounced dead at Emerson Hospital in Concord at about 8:10 a.m. Alenson, described as shy but easygoing, had moved to Sudbury from Natick last fall.

The slaying rocked Lincoln and Sudbury, affluent suburbs that pride themselves on safe schools. The high school did not have assigned police officers or metal detectors.

By last evening, police had uncovered no motive for the stabbing and after a series of interviews at the high school had not established a connection between the suspect and victim, said a state official with knowledge of the investigation.

"They're not even sure the two kids knew each other," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Nobody saw the stabbing, but a boy who was in a stall of the bathroom heard what happened between Odgren and Alenson, the official said.

At his arraignment in Framingham District Court yesterday afternoon, Odgren, tall and thin and wearing wire-framed glasses, stood quietly in a white jumpsuit, his hands and legs manacled. He was charged as an adult with first-degree murder and could face life in prison if convicted. He was also charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and carrying a dangerous weapon on school grounds. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was ordered held without bail.

He lived in Princeton with his father, Paul, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts, and his mother, Dorothy, a nurse at a clinic in Worcester.

Dorothy Odgren clutched her husband's arm as they sat in the courtroom watching their son's arraignment. Both declined to speak to reporters.

"I know my client and his family feel for the victim and his family," Shapiro said.

Marguerite Kirst Colston , a spokeswoman for the Autism Society of America, said Asperger Syndrome does not usually cause violent outbursts. Typically, people with the syndrome are exceedingly intelligent, but struggle relating to peers, she said.

"They may be socially awkward and not understand conventional social rules," Colston said in a telephone interview. "They may be more distant."

Since 2002, there have been 22 criminal cases in the United States in which the syndrome was used successfully to show diminished mental capacity and avoid a conviction, she said.

In court, a Middlesex prosecutor, Daniel Bennett , said the timing of the attack, when the school was mostly empty, "strongly suggests Mr. Odgren planned this premeditated murder."

As students streamed into the school after the attack, teachers herded them into classrooms and the cafeteria, where the students were kept for nearly two hours.

At about 10 a.m., administrators sent students home for the day. Students rushed outside, cellphones pressed to ears, some into the arms of their waiting, worried parents who learned of the stabbing from television and radio, an e-mail sent by the school, and cellphone calls from their children.

Robert Sackstein , a physician at Harvard Medical School, dropped off his twins, both freshmen, and drove away, not knowing someone had been stabbed. Later, he got a frantic phone call from his wife and rushed back to get his children.

"The fact that it happened in Sudbury, Massachusetts, means that it can happen anywhere," Sackstein said.

Officials at the school of 1,600 students had met with police on Wednesday to review security procedures. Ritchie said that review "did help us have a sense of how to respond, how to be calm, how to reassure students, where to go, how to listen to announcements."

"For me, that's a small consolation right now," he said. "Obviously, what we are dealing with is the heartbreak of this student dying."

Jordan Perkins , 18, a senior from Lincoln, said that although students often argue at the school, he has never seen serious violence.

"There are a lot of confrontations that I see all the time," Perkins said yesterday outside the school. "I'm just surprised one turned into somebody getting stabbed and killed."

Last evening, Bill Keller , chairman of the Sudbury Board of Selectmen, and Jack Ryan , a member of the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District School Committee, taped a message for the local public access station, directing people to the school's website, which offers information about grief counseling sessions today and tomorrow.

"It's a devastating blow to the community," said Alexandra Plotkin , co-president of Lincoln-Sudbury Parent Organization. "It's a small town. We know each other. And it's just a real shock."

Last night, about 50 students held a candlelight vigil outside the school, where parents met with Ritchie, who said officials have not decided whether to increase security at the high school.

Several parents said they considered the stabbing an aberration and do not want it to prompt changes in security. They noted that juniors and seniors at the high school, with permission from their parents, are allowed to come and go from the school's campus between classes.

"I don't see how something like this is preventable without completely changing the nature of the high school," said Skip Heaps , a Sudbury parent of three, including one at the high school.

Added Dave Dickinson , who has two daughters in the high school, "There's no reason to think in our community that something like this should happen or could happen again. There's no culture in this high school of violence."

Stephanie Ebbert, Tracy Jan, and Ralph Ranalli of the Globe Staff and Globe correspondents Franci R. Ellement, Kristen Green, Michael Naughton, and Charlie Russo contributed to this report. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com; Levenson at mlevenson@globe.com.