Students at Acalanes High School said Dyleski was a nonconformist who walked with his head down and withdrew into drawing and painting. He studied hard for the GED because he despised high school and wanted to leave. When he did, he enrolled in art classes at Diablo Valley College.
Word that he was a suspect in Vitale's death spread quickly around Acalanes High School on Thursday, after teachers read a short announcement about his arrest. The news left the school reeling: Recently, one student's mother stepped in front of a car in an apparent suicide, and a former student who had graduated last year hanged himself.
SAN LEANDRO Girl shot dead near high school Horrified classmates witness the violence, then see gunman kill himself, police say Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 2005
A 14-year-old girl was killed not far from San Leandro High School on Thursday by a young man who shot her in the back and then took his own life as horrified classmates looked on, police said.
The killing occurred in a residential neighborhood just blocks away from San Leandro High School as the girl, a sophomore at the campus, was walking to school shortly before 8 a.m.
Her killer -- believed to be between 16 and 18 years old -- pulled up to the curb at 136th and Wake avenues in a green 1995 Chevrolet Camaro, got out and, without saying a word, opened fire with a shotgun, police said.
"He got out of the car, walked up behind her and shot her several times and then shot himself," said San Leandro police Lt. Marc DeCoulode. He declined to provide any further details on the suicide.
Several students witnessed the shooting, police said.
The two knew each other, but investigators have not established a motive for the killing, he said. Authorities have not confirmed the gunman's identity, but he is not believed to be a student at San Leandro High.