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Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
WINNENDEN, Germany – A 17-year-old wielding a Beretta 9 mm pistol burst into classrooms at his former high school Wednesday and gunned down students — some of whom died with their pencils still in hand — in a rampage that ended with 15 dead before he took his own life, authorities said.
There was no immediate indication of motive, but the gunman's victims were primarily female: eight of nine students killed were girls, and all three teachers were women. Three men were killed later as the suspect, identified by police as Tim K., fled.
"I heard two shots and then screaming," said a 15-year-old student who gave her name only as Betty. "At first I thought it was a joke, but then someone called 'Run, run!' and I saw students jumping out of the windows and took off running."
The gunman — dressed in all black — took students in the first classroom completely by surprise, evidenced by the morbid scene that awaited the first officers to arrive, said regional police director Ralf Michelfelder.
"Children were sitting at their tables, with pencils still in their hands, their heads fallen over on the table," he said. "Most of them had shots in their head — it must have all happened in seconds."
The dark-haired teen, shown wearing glasses in pictures on German television, apparently took the weapon from his father's collection of 16 firearms along with a "multitude of ammunition," police said. His father was a member of the local gun club and kept the weapons locked away except for the pistol, which was kept in the bedroom.
Police said the suspect was a German teen who was a below-average student at the school of about 1,000 pupils, but managed to graduate last year.
"He was lower than average, and he wasn't engaged in school events," Michelfelder said.
A sister of the suspect attends the school.
Police received an emergency call from the school at 9:33 a.m. The first officers responded about two minutes later, said Baden Wuerttemburg state interior minister Heribert Rech. They heard shots on the second floor and ran upstairs, catching a glimpse of the suspect on a staircase, Rech said.
He fired a shot at the police and then fled, killing his last victims in the school — two teachers — on his way out, Rech said.
"Our officers were very quick," Rech said. "Through the immediate police intervention they were able to prevent a further escalation of the crime."
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 wounding the other, police said.
The gunman then hijacked a car and forced the driver to head south while threatening his life from the back seat, triggering a land and air manhunt involving 700 police officers and four helicopters, according to Stuttgart prosecutors.
The driver swerved off the road to avoid a police checkpoint and managed to escape, while the suspect fled from the car into an industrial area in the town of Wendlingen, about 24 miles (40 kilometers) from Winnenden.
He entered a car dealership, where he shot and killed his final victims — a salesman and a man shopping for a car — and then went back outside, prosecutors said.
He opened fire on police swarming the area, who shot back and hit the suspect, who fell wounded to the ground, Michelfelder said.
But he got back up, reloaded his weapon, and fled into what turned out to be a dead-end street. Police found him there dead, having apparently shot himself in the head.
Two police officers suffered serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.
The death toll was close to that of Germany's worst school shooting.
In the 2002 shooting, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany.
Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor's note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.
German Chancellor Angel Merkel called the shooting "a horrific crime."
"It is hard to put into words what happened today, but our sadness and sympathy goes out to the victims' families," Merkel said.
The European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, France, stood in silence for a minute, to honor the victims.
"It is our task as responsible politicians in the European Union and, indeed, all the member states to do our utmost that such deeds can be prevented," said EU assembly president Hans-Gert Pottering, a German.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
I guess people can quit saying stuff like this only happens in the US. A tragedy for sure, but I predict Germany will come down on gun owenership even harder now.
Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
Fuck... what is up with all these mass-murders lately?
I love the cop's comment "he was a below average student. He didn't participate in school activities"
That shit right there is probably why he picked up a fuckin' gun. Just because some of us don't find glamour in participating lame ass school activities doesn't make us below average and homicidal maniacs. 
Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
Fuck... what is up with all these mass-murders lately?
I love the cop's comment "he was a below average student. He didn't participate in school activities"
That shit right there is probably why he picked up a fuckin' gun. Just because some of us don't find glamour in participating lame ass school activities doesn't make us below average and homicidal maniacs.
My school had some pretty piss-poor excuses for clubs. Being below average and not participating in school doesn't mean you're going to blow everyone's brains out.
How about we look at those other kids who make kids like this feel inferior for this reason? Or how about the cop as well, that's obviously a hasty generalization and will probably affect a few kids as well.
I just wish the media would cover an example of a rich, good grades, and active student shooting a bunch of people. That would fuck with all these people trying to pin this on one group of kids and make poor excuses for why these kids do this. (And I am in no way implying that I know exactly why these kids do this either)
Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
They're usually pushed to a dark point of no return, where they have that flashpoint, and suddenly they go grab a gun.
I don't know about Germany, but I can say first hand in America, i've seen kids driven to the point of suicide and/or murder, because of the ridiculous, lame, douche treatment they get in school. Instead of being an institution for education, it becomes an institution for social cliques, hazing, and a high amount of adult staff living vicariously through children.
Unfortunately there are kids who have psychological issues that need to be addressed before it gets too bad, and because they have neglectful or absent parents, they don't see the train running off into the ravine.
When you're rode unmercifully throughout your entire life for being too ugly, or too weird, or too fat or too dumb, etc. it really negatively conditions you to either A) hate yourself, B) hate others, or C) both. When you hate yourself and others, it's carte blanche babe.
I remember being 14 at the time of Columbine, and just getting railroaded by people because I had sympathy for the murderers. At the end of the day, is it right? No. But are children responsible for their actions? Yes, always.
Just remember youth of America, the next kid you call "fat fuck", or the next kid you beat up because he wears all black and listens to Marilyn Manson, or the next kid you beat up because he likes chess and not football... he might put bullet in your brain one day, and for what? Was it worth it for that 3 seconds of acceptance from your buddies that ain't gonna give a fuck about you when you graduate? Was that little comment worth losing your life over?
I'm not condoning this behavior on any level, but I can see where SOME (not all) of these kids come from in a way. Bottom line is, you beat an animal down enough... one day it'll bite back, so take the safe route, and just don't hit it.
Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
And as if all the pressures from school weren't enough, add on top of that the life outside of school, which for some kids is even more fucked up than any school life. There are those kids who actually find refuge in school even though they hate the kids there.
Schools aren't educating our kids on what's important in this world. Instead, they are too busy trying to fit in and be accepted and cool and popular, which in turn makes them materialistic and vain, which then in turn makes them view others the way they are viewed, which puts some other kid in the same place they once were. It's one big vicious cycle.
There are more important things in life than having the best and trendiest clothes with the hottest brands. Fuck that shit. I for one would much rather find a pair of jeans that fit me good versus finding one that has a certain brand name on them. The most expensive jeans I own are a pair of Lucky Brand Jeans, but I didn't pay the $130 price tag, I payed $30. And I got them because they fit good and were a good price for jeans.
And this is not criticizing those kids who are bullied, but those who do the bullying. It's those kids who think they are better than everyone else because they have the best clothes and are the most 'attractive.'
I can't date a vain girl. I can't date a materialistic girl. In fact, I don't even like girls who've got boob jobs. It disgusts me.
Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
Axlin08 wrote:Fuck... what is up with all these mass-murders lately?
I love the cop's comment "he was a below average student. He didn't participate in school activities"
That shit right there is probably why he picked up a fuckin' gun. Just because some of us don't find glamour in participating lame ass school activities doesn't make us below average and homicidal maniacs.
My school had some pretty piss-poor excuses for clubs. Being below average and not participating in school doesn't mean you're going to blow everyone's brains out.
How about we look at those other kids who make kids like this feel inferior for this reason? Or how about the cop as well, that's obviously a hasty generalization and will probably affect a few kids as well.
I just wish the media would cover an example of a rich, good grades, and active student shooting a bunch of people. That would fuck with all these people trying to pin this on one group of kids and make poor excuses for why these kids do this. (And I am in no way implying that I know exactly why these kids do this either)
just my assumptions based on my own experience:
You see the difference is most bright kids, even though they have those kinds of thoughts know just to push it to the back of their minds and try and forget those feelings.
Re: Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
And as if all the pressures from school weren't enough, add on top of that the life outside of school, which for some kids is even more fucked up than any school life. There are those kids who actually find refuge in school even though they hate the kids there.
Schools aren't educating our kids on what's important in this world. Instead, they are too busy trying to fit in and be accepted and cool and popular, which in turn makes them materialistic and vain, which then in turn makes them view others the way they are viewed, which puts some other kid in the same place they once were. It's one big vicious cycle.
There are more important things in life than having the best and trendiest clothes with the hottest brands. Fuck that shit. I for one would much rather find a pair of jeans that fit me good versus finding one that has a certain brand name on them. The most expensive jeans I own are a pair of Lucky Brand Jeans, but I didn't pay the $130 price tag, I payed $30. And I got them because they fit good and were a good price for jeans.
And this is not criticizing those kids who are bullied, but those who do the bullying. It's those kids who think they are better than everyone else because they have the best clothes and are the most 'attractive.'
I can't date a vain girl. I can't date a materialistic girl. In fact, I don't even like girls who've got boob jobs. It disgusts me.
Me either. I can't stand vain girls. I don't care how gorgeous they are, if they have no substance, I can't even get it up with them anyway. Their soul just seems so shallow and and non-existant.
