WINNENDEN, Germany–The 17-year-old had no criminal record and authorities say he was barely noticed in school until he returned yesterday with a handgun and a purpose.
Entering the high school where he graduated last year, he burst into morning classes and opened fire, taking students and teachers by surprise.
“Children were sitting at their tables, with pencils still in their hands, their heads fallen over on the table,” said regional police director Ralf Michelfelder, describing the grisly scene that his officers found. “Most of them had shots in their head – it must have all happened in seconds.”
Police identified the gunman as Tim Kretschmer.
The suspect went to three classrooms, killing nine students and three teachers before fleeing the building when police arrived.
It was there the plan seemed to break down. Police said he left a cache of ammunition at the school, indicating that he had planned more killings there.
“Our officers were very quick,” said Baden Wuerttemburg state Interior Minister Heribert Rech.
There was no immediate indication of motive, but the gunman’s victims were primarily female: eight of nine students killed were teenage girls, and all three teachers were women. Three men were killed later as the suspect fled.
Friend Fabienne Boehm, 12, said she recently met the shooter and he had claimed fellow students at the high school had mocked him and teachers there ignored him.
Three weeks ago, she said he showed her a note. “He wrote to his parents that he’s suffering and he can’t go on,” she said outside a memorial service last night. The local church held a candlelight service to remember the victims. About half the 1,000 people there had to stand and many wept and hugged each other during the service.
A 17-year-old who would give only his first name, Aki, said he had been studying this year with the shooter at a private business school, and described him as quiet and reserved.
Aki said the two played poker together, both in person and online, as well as a multiplayer video game called “Counter-Strike” that involves killing people to complete missions. “He was good,” Aki said.
The teen apparently took the weapon from his father’s collection of 15 firearms along with a “multitude of ammunition,” police said. His father was a member of the local gun club and kept all the weapons locked away except for the pistol, which was kept in the bedroom.
After fleeing the school, the suspect ran into downtown Winnenden, a town of 28,000, where he shot two people walking by a psychiatric clinic, killing one and injuring the other, police said.
The gunman then hijacked a car and forced the driver to head south, triggering a land and air search involving 700 police officers and four helicopters, according to Stuttgart prosecutors.
The gunman died hours later in a shootout in Wendlingen, some 30 kilometres from the school, after killing two men in a car dealership. Those killings brought the death toll to 16, including the gunman, who police believe shot himself after opening fire on police officers swarming the area.
http://gamecrimes.com/counter-strike-player-kills-15-people-in-real-life.html
Entering the high school where he graduated last year, he burst into morning classes and opened fire, taking students and teachers by surprise.
“Children were sitting at their tables, with pencils still in their hands, their heads fallen over on the table,” said regional police director Ralf Michelfelder, describing the grisly scene that his officers found. “Most of them had shots in their head – it must have all happened in seconds.”
Police identified the gunman as Tim Kretschmer.
The suspect went to three classrooms, killing nine students and three teachers before fleeing the building when police arrived.
It was there the plan seemed to break down. Police said he left a cache of ammunition at the school, indicating that he had planned more killings there.
“Our officers were very quick,” said Baden Wuerttemburg state Interior Minister Heribert Rech.
There was no immediate indication of motive, but the gunman’s victims were primarily female: eight of nine students killed were teenage girls, and all three teachers were women. Three men were killed later as the suspect fled.
Friend Fabienne Boehm, 12, said she recently met the shooter and he had claimed fellow students at the high school had mocked him and teachers there ignored him.
Three weeks ago, she said he showed her a note. “He wrote to his parents that he’s suffering and he can’t go on,” she said outside a memorial service last night. The local church held a candlelight service to remember the victims. About half the 1,000 people there had to stand and many wept and hugged each other during the service.
A 17-year-old who would give only his first name, Aki, said he had been studying this year with the shooter at a private business school, and described him as quiet and reserved.
Aki said the two played poker together, both in person and online, as well as a multiplayer video game called “Counter-Strike” that involves killing people to complete missions. “He was good,” Aki said.
The teen apparently took the weapon from his father’s collection of 15 firearms along with a “multitude of ammunition,” police said. His father was a member of the local gun club and kept all the weapons locked away except for the pistol, which was kept in the bedroom.
After fleeing the school, the suspect ran into downtown Winnenden, a town of 28,000, where he shot two people walking by a psychiatric clinic, killing one and injuring the other, police said.
The gunman then hijacked a car and forced the driver to head south, triggering a land and air search involving 700 police officers and four helicopters, according to Stuttgart prosecutors.
The gunman died hours later in a shootout in Wendlingen, some 30 kilometres from the school, after killing two men in a car dealership. Those killings brought the death toll to 16, including the gunman, who police believe shot himself after opening fire on police officers swarming the area.
http://gamecrimes.com/counter-strike-player-kills-15-people-in-real-life.html
