A former Stratford resident arrested on felony charges for threatening students here and in Danbury had a fascination with the murders at Columbine (Colo.) School and talked about shooting students and staff to death, according to warrants unsealed April 1.
Natalie A. Carpenter, who was arrested by Torrington police on March 4 on felony charges of first-degree attempt to commit assault and conspiracy to commit assault linked to Stratford and Danbury high schools, remains incarcerated at Niantic Corrections Institute according to published reports.
Natalie A. Carpenter, arrested for threatening to kill at Stratford High School.
At the time of her arrest Carpenter lived at Hope House, a residential facility for individuals with mental illness.
According to a a fellow resident at Hope House who told police she heard Carpenter talking about killing people at schools, Carpenter and a friend, Peter Thulin, planned on getting “down to Danbury High School and then to Stratford High School and hide out in the school like in Columbine. They were going to take the school hostage,” the witness said, “and after some time start shooting students and staff until they were dead. She said they planned on killing themselves afterwards.”
According the arrest warrant, Carpenter, 18, and Thulin, 19, conspired to “shoot up a school,” but they figured they had to wait until they were 21 when they could legally buy guns. The two recently went to two gun stores to look into various weapons possibly to purchase, the warrant states.
Torrington police said Thulin is currently in a secure mental facility and will be turned over to police when released.
Carpenter admitted to police that she recently watched videos about the Columbine shootings and had written in a journal that “High schoolers are the ones who deserve to get shot. They’re (expletive deleted) heartless, trust me I know.”
Carpenter had attended Bunnell High School and Stratford High School and claimed to have been bullied while attending those schools, according to testimony of Carpenter’s mother, Wendy, in an affidavit leading to the arrest. Carpenter wrote in her journal, “There’s still bullying going on and its getting worse.”
Other writings in Carpenter’s journal, according to the warrant, were expressions of sympathy and compassion for the two Columbine murderers, feelings of suicide, depression and being disrespected by men in her life.
Along with Carpenter’s journal, which was seized as evidence, police found in Carpenter’s apartment a book : Ceremonial Violence, A Psychological Explanation of School Shootings.
“Carpenter admitted writing about the shootings,” the warrant states, and she “stated she remembers thinking about the people who were mean to her when she wrote the entry into her notebook but claims it was just writing and she wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
Carpenter’s mother “confirmed Carpenter currently suffers from mental health issues such as mood disorder, personality disorder, ADHD, depression, and she has been known to cut herself and has made previous suicide attempts,” according to the court documents. The mother “also confirmed that Carpenter has expressed a desire to commit suicide by shooting herself inside of a school so all the bullies can see the effects of bullying,” the warrant states.
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