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Alleged Oakland school shooter One L. Goh pleads not guilty

(AP) OAKLAND, Calif. - A California man accused of committing the nation's deadliest school shooting rampage since the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech pleaded not guilty Monday to murder charges.

One L. Goh, 43, entered his plea through his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender David Klaus in Alameda County Superior Court.

Goh is charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the April 2 attack at Oikos University in Oakland.

Klaus declined to comment after the hearing.

Goh also faces the special circumstance of committing multiple murders that makes him eligible for the death penalty.

Authorities said Goh planned the shootings and opened fire at the small Christian college founded to cater to Korean immigrants after becoming angry over a tuition dispute with school officials.

Those killed were students Doris Chibuko, 40; Judith Seymour, 53; Grace EunHea Kim, 23; Lydia Sim, 21; Bhutia Tshering, 38; Sonam Choedon, 33; and secretary Katleen Ping, 24.

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Choedon's brother, Wangchen Nyima, attended Monday's hearing and said he wanted to see Goh in person.

"I just want to know why this happened," Nyima said. "He seems like he has his own problems. He seems like he's a psycho."

Shackled and wearing a red jumpsuit, Goh appeared somewhat calm during his brief court hearing and was noticeably thinner than he was during his previous court appearance.

A once heavyset man, Goh lost about 20 pounds in jail after he went on a self-imposed hunger strike, said sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson. Goh inexplicably began eating again on Saturday, Nelson said.

Goh, who spent time in the jail infirmary, is now being held in a segregated area of the jail.

"There's always concern for safety when you have a crime of this magnitude," Nelson said.

A South Korea native who became a U.S. citizen, Goh dropped out of the Oikos nursing program last fall, citing problems getting along with classmates. He wanted the college to return about $4,000 to $6,000 in tuition payments.

Armed with a semiautomatic handgun and four magazines of ammunition, Goh went to the school looking for one or more administrators involved in the tuition dispute, authorities have said.

The shooting began when he learned those people were not there, according to investigators.

Goh surrendered to police at a supermarket a couple hours after the rampage sparked an intense, chaotic manhunt. The murder weapon was later found in a nearby waterway.

In a previous jailhouse interview with KPIX-TV, Goh said he was deeply sorry about the shooting.

"I only remember parts of that day and it is too hard to talk about," Goh told the station, at times weeping.

Goh is due back in court for a pretrial hearing on June 25.

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