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Were there more Weston targets?
Craig Schreiner - State Journal
Eric Hainstock, accused killer of Weston High School Principal John Klang, appears Monday via video feed in Sauk County Circuit Court in Baraboo. Judge Patrick Taggart set bail at $750,000.

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TUE., OCT 3, 2006 - 11:35 AM
Were there more Weston targets?
DOUG ERICKSON and BARRY ADAMS
BARABOO - Statements at a court hearing Monday and newly released police documents suggest 15-year-old Eric Hainstock may have had additional victims in mind when he allegedly shot and killed Principal John Klang at Weston High School Friday.

Law enforcement officials searching Hainstock's rural Sauk County home found notes and other documents in which the boy, charged with murdering Klang, expresses anger toward classmates and teachers as well as Klang, according to a search warrant released Monday.

Among the items seized: a photograph of a female juvenile with the girl's eyes poked out.

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Meanwhile, at Weston Schools near Cazenovia Monday, almost three dozen counselors, psychologists and social workers were on hand to speak with students and staff. An armed Sauk County sheriff's deputy manned the main entrance of the school, which will resume classes on Thursday.

Two Weston students said Monday that while Hainstock was routinely singled out for teasing by classmates, he often brought it on by his odd and sometimes bullying behavior.

"He always tried to pick fights," said one of the students, Katie McGlynn, 15, a sophomore from Cazenovia who has known Hainstock since about fifth grade.

Hainstock has told police that he felt picked on at the school and that staff members didn't step in to help him - a charge rebutted by some district employees.

Hainstock, a freshman, is accused of entering the school about 8 a.m. Friday with a shotgun and a concealed .22- caliber handgun. A custodian disarmed the boy of the shotgun and called 911. Klang confronted the boy in a hallway and was shot three times with the handgun as the two wrestled, according to a criminal complaint.

Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart set bail at $750,000 Monday.

In arguing for that amount, Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett suggested that other community members could be at risk if the boy were free. People in addition to the school's principal may have been "persons of interest" to Hainstock on the day the boy brought the guns to school, she said. "Their safety, certainly, is paramount," she said.

In an interview later, Barrett said it is too early to call the other people targets.

"Essentially the investigation suggests there may have been other people he wished to see at the school," she said. "We're not sure of any intent on his part, but we want to make sure these people are safe."

Hainstock made his first court appearance Monday in Sauk County Circuit Court via video from the county jail about two miles away. It is customary in the county for jail inmates to appear by video for bail hearings to save on transportation costs, court officials said.

Hainstock, in an orange jumpsuit, spent most of the seven-minute hearing slumped sideways in a chair, with one arm propping himself up against a counter. He kept his left hand under his chin or covering his mouth most of the time.

Hainstock spoke just twice, both times to affirm that he understood aspects of the court proceeding. Ten Weston High School students - nine girls and a boy - attended the hearing. All declined comment afterward. It was unclear whether any of Hainstock's family members were at the courthouse.

McGlynn, the sophomore from Cazenovia, said Hainstock may have been the most picked on person among the 300-plus student body.

"He didn't have many friends," she said. "He didn't get along with his class or the class he's supposed to be with." (Hainstock repeated the sixth grade.)

McGlynn said Hainstock often smelled of smoke, wore the same clothes for days, had greasy hair and appeared to not shower on a daily basis. He was good at antagonizing students, she said.

Robert Cohoon, 12, a seventh-grader, said that when classmates learned that Hainstock had thrown a stapler at a teacher a few weeks ago, they started calling him "psycho."

Cohoon said that while Hainstock often was teased, he also was "annoying." Hainstock would approach someone, tell the person he had psychic abilities, and then predict that the person was about to be shoved. He then would shove the person, Cohoon said.

"He always acted stupid. He would just do stupid stuff," Cohoon said. "He was picked on for the stuff he did."

Authorities searched the home of Shawn and Priscilla Hainstock, the boy's father and stepmother, on Friday.

Among the items taken, according to papers filed Monday in Sauk County Circuit Court, were a computer, boxes of ammunition, discipline reports from Weston Schools dated March 6 and Sept. 22 of this year, a letter from Weston Schools addressed to Shawn Hainstock, a door to a living room gun cabinet, a screwdriver and "notes or other writings and documents in which (Hainstock) expresses anger towards other students, teachers or the principal."

Also taken was a note addressed to "Dad" from "Eric." The contents of the note were not revealed.

At the Hainstock house Monday, no one answered the door and the five vehicles parked in front of the home appeared to be in the same positions as they were Saturday. Four small dogs barked from the front bay window of the home, along with a larger hound-like dog penned outside the house.


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