Crazed Gunman Gets Off
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Sproul told police
that with the rifle pointed in her direction
and the odor of a ''firecracker bomb'' in the air, Brotzman said he
''was really [expletive] up,''' according to court documents from his
arraignment Tuesday on charges of possessing a weapon on school
property and making terroristic threats.Sproul asked about the smoky
odor, and Brotzman said he'd set off a firecracker bomb, the affidavit
says. She listened as he described how his life had crumbled in recent
days. He had not been sleeping. His girlfriend broke up with him. He
wanted to hurt her new boyfriend.
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Brotzman, 18, who graduated June
10 in absentia, was arraigned before District Judge Joan
Marinkovits of Northampton for allegedly
causing the evacuation and massive security sweep by armed police
officers at the school complex in the borough.Marinkovits set bail
with a host of conditions, including orders that Brotzman stay away
from firearms and get mental health and drug and alcohol counseling.
She sent him back to the KidsPeace treatment facility
for children and teens in North Whitehall
Township, where he had been since he was released from the psychiatric
unit of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg in Bethlehem.
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When Brotzman would not unload and
remove the gun, Sproul said she would call his mother and brother, Beau, a
2005 graduate of Northampton High. She also said police were on their way.
Police say Brotzman had brought the weapons into the school
inside his guitar case. His standoff with the
authorities ended the school day for 2,028 other high school and middle
school students, who were evacuated to the football stadium and then sent
home about 11:30 a.m.
Within hours, Brotzman was in the psychiatric unit
at LVH-Muhlenberg.Christopher Kovalchik, director of pretrial services,
said the mental health and substance therapy should last 60 to 90 days. If
Brotzman successfully completes the treatment program, Kovalchik said, he
can go home under electronic monitoring
while the court case continues.
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