German Teenager Kills Sixteen, Then Dies
A seventeen year old boy, dressed in black, returned to his former school, Albertville Secondary, in the town of Winneden, entered at 9:30 a.m. walked into two classrooms, and began firing at his former classmates. Within a few moments he had killed ten pupils and three teachers as well as wounding many others. The boy left, hijacked a car and drove to the town of Wendlingen, where he was confronted by police who killed him during an exchange of firing. It was the worst shooting in Germany since the Erfurt school massacre in 2002 in which a former students killed 16 people before killing himself.
The boy is only identified as Tim K. and was described by his former teachers as inconspicuous. He left school a year ago after receiving his secondary school certificate and then entered a job training program. One of his former classmates described Tim K. as “deeply frustrated” but did not offer any specific explanation of what he meant by saying the boy was “frustrated.”
Police discovered at least 18 guns in the boy’s home and apparently he had taken an Italian made Baretta from his father’s collection of guns to use in the shooting spree. If it can be proved the father failed to lock the guns in a secure place, police may charge him with breaking the law regarding ensuring weapons in a home are not available to children.
The pattern for school shooting remains the same since in the vast majority of cases, shootings occur in a small town or suburban area, the shooter is described as a loner, and words such as “inconspicuous” are generally used in describing his presence in the school. Teachers appear to know the shooter is present, but in most cases there are few examples of a teacher and student having forged close relationships. Tim K. was the perennial outsider wandering the halls of a secondary school, alone, and harboring secret thoughts.
Posted in Students, Teaching | 
Tags: albertville, german teenager, loner, shooting spree, suburban area
