SOUTH BEND (AP) — A neighbor of a 16-year-old boy accused of planning a Columbine-style attack on his high school described him as "kind of strange."

"He was an average kid, but kind of strange," said Allen McBride, who lives seven houses away. "He came down here one day with a snake wrapped around his arm and said, 'Do you want to buy a snake?' I said, 'Man get back there.'"

McBride said he's lived in the house for 22 years and had watched the boy grow up from the time he used to visit his deceased grandfather until he moved into the house with his uncle. He said the boy didn't spend time with other children in the neighborhood, though he used to play with another boy who has since moved away.

The boy was taken into custody after a school officer investigating an unrelated threat at Penn High School, 10 miles east of South Bend, discovered Internet postings in which the teen discussed his support for the Columbine shooters, a reference to the 1999 massacre at a suburban Denver high school in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide. Authorities also say he exchanged e-mails with an Ohio man about planning simultaneous attacks on Sept. 11.

Authorities said they found more than 100 knives and several illegal snakes at the home, which is in a rundown neighborhood scattered with vacant houses just blocks from downtown South Bend.

St. Joseph Probate Court Judge Peter Nemeth on Friday ordered the teen, whose name was not released because of his age, to remain in juvenile detention "for his own protection and protection of society." He also ordered him to undergo a psychological evaluation.

The teen's attorney, James Nafe, had asked the court to release him to the custody of his uncle, with whom he lives, saying he could keep an "eye on him."

Nemeth rejected the proposal, saying: "It doesn't sound from past history that anyone was keeping an eye on him."

The boy's mother told the judge that her son did not live with her in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend, because of an altercation. Nemeth stopped her when she tried to explain.

In a MySpace page believed to belong to the boy, although it could not be confirmed, the author describes himself as being 16 years old and lists himself as being "optimistic."

The page also has "TCMI" in brackets. An online search shows that TCM is often an abbreviation for Trench Coat Mafia, which the Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold called themselves.

The MySpace page has a link to a YouTube page with videos of a character named Hillbilly Benjamin. The character has a bearded mask on, plays the guitar upside down and sings a song laced with profanity. Another profanity-laden video with the same character said he would commit suicide by electrocution and shows him sitting in a chair simulating an execution. The video ends by stating that the suicide attempt was unsuccessful.

The last log-in to the MySpace page was on Tuesday, the day the youth was taken into custody.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek to have the case moved to adult court, said deputy prosecutor Eric Tamashasky. The results of the psychological tests will be part of that decision.

"It's another piece so we can make an informed decision that really is in the best interest of justice for everybody," he said.

Prosecutors have until Thursday to file delinquency charges, he said. There is no deadline for a decision to seek to have the case moved to adult court.