HILLSBOROUGH - On a homemade video, Alvaro Castillo confesses to shooting his father four times, then walks into a room and records the sheet-draped corpse.

"Look at me. I'm not even crying. I just killed him, and I feel fine," the Hillsborough teenager says into the camera.

"I'm not afraid anymore," he says in the video's final scene. "I have to die."

The tape, along with a handwritten letter, arrived at the office of The Chapel Hill News on Thursday, the day after Castillo was arrested and charged with a shooting at Orange High School, and told sheriff's deputies he had killed his father.

Deputies found Rafael Huezo Castillo's body on the couch at the family's home on 230 Lipps Lane on Wednesday afternoon, after they say the 2005 Orange High School graduate drove a 1997 Dodge Caravan into the school parking lot and opened fire about lunchtime.

Castillo, 19, who in April was involuntarily committed after threatening to kill himself, was armed with a sawed-off shotgun and rifle, according to arrest warrants. He had several pipe bombs and smokeless grenades in the van and at his home, according to search warrants.

The letter and videotape were sent by overnight mail to The Chapel Hill News, a twice-weekly newspaper produced by The News & Observer Publishing Co. The newspapers share a news staff covering Orange County.

According to the mailing label, the tape was accepted at a post office at 12:50 p.m. Wednesday, 14 minutes before 911 operators got the first call about the Orange High shooting.

Castillo stopped within 100 feet of a school courtyard crowded with students on their lunch period, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said in a release.

He threw a smoke bomb on a vehicle in the parking lot, then got two guns and ammunition out of the van and started shooting, according to the release. He hit a GMC Jimmy and another vehicle, according to arrest warrants. About 10 shots hit the school's walls in the courtyard near the cafeteria, the release said.

Two students were injured: A bullet grazed senior Tiffaney Utsman in the shoulder. Andrew Hunt was hit by broken glass.

Within minutes, a school resource officer, Deputy London Ivey, and driver's education teacher and former state trooper Russell LeBlanc confronted Castillo, told him to drop his weapons and handcuffed him, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.

Then Castillo started "rambling about his father being sacrificed," according to the release.

Castillo was being held in Raleigh's Central Prison after being charged with first-degree murder and at least 10 other charges stemming from the school shooting, including possession of weapons of mass destruction and assault with a deadly weapon.

At a first court appearance Thursday morning, a judge ordered Castillo held without bail in the death of his father, and on $500,000 for the other charges.

Castillo's court-appointed attorney will be public defender James Williams. Reached by cell phone, Williams said he was out of town and knew little of the case.

"We are still investigating the matter," he said.

The letter sent to the newspaper says the tape was sent "because I want the world to look into the mind of a depressed and traumatized individual."

'It's time'

In the video, Castillo holds the camera close to his face and says he plans to kill himself and his father. Later, the teenager records a body slumped on a sofa. Two bare legs stick out from under a blood-flecked sheet.

Most of the hour-plus video shows Castillo aiming the camera at a small television playing violent movies. They include "Scarface," "Predator," "The Shining," "Natural Born Killers" and a documentary, "Zero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High."

Castillo narrates the violence, sometimes chiming in word-for-word with actors. He repeatedly uses the mute button to silence profanity.

Grisly scenes prompt a throaty laugh.

"Beautiful," Castillo says, during "Scarface's" final bloody scene, when the lead character floats dead in a swimming pool.

On the video, Castillo notes that he first watched these movies when he was 8 to 10 years old. He taped them, he says, to show how violent the world is.

Castillo also says on the video that his father slapped -- but never punched -- his head, back and rear. His father disciplined his mother "like a child," he says.

The letter also claims abuse: "His threats and abuse took their toll on me."

In another scene, Castillo cocks a shotgun and puts the barrel in his mouth, then points it at the camera. The word "Arlene" is written on a scrap of paper taped to the weapon.

Castillo says his suicide would be "the perfect instant killing."

Near the end of the video, Castillo addresses the parents of the students he plans to kill, displaying a shotgun shell and a 9 mm bullet. He encourages parents to shoot themselves and reunite with their children in the afterlife.

"Once again, parents, I'm sorry about this. I'm sorry about the pain you'll go through," Castillo says. "If you want to be with your children, go with them."

Castillo pants in front of the camera, describing his father's killing.

Before turning off the camera, he says, "It's time."

(Staff writer Leah Friedman contributed to this article.)