Times Online
November 7, 2007
Gunman used YouTube to predict school massacre
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2825403.ece
Jack Malvern
A teenage gunman killed his headmistress and seven fellow pupils at a school in southern Finland today, hours after posting a chilling video on the YouTube website predicting the massacre.
Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, a pupil at Jokela high school in Tuusula, went on a rampage through classrooms before turning the gun on himself. He shot himself in the head but survived and was in an “extremely critical condition” in hospital last night, a police spokesman said.
The school shooting is thought to be unprecedented in Finland, where violent incidents are rare despite a high rate of gun ownership. In his YouTube postings and videos, Auvinen appeared to have similarities to the authors of some of the United States' worst massacres - including the shootings at Virginia Tech in April.
The video - which has been deleted - shows a still image of a school that appears to be the Jokela school. The photograph fragments to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a gun at the camera.
On his YouTube profile, posted under the name Sturmgeist89, Auvinen wrote: "I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection."
Jan-Olav Nyholm, a local police officer, said that the killer came from a "very normal family" of four. "He has one brother," he said. "He had no problems in school."
Kim Kiuru, a teacher at the school, described how he first became aware of the situation at noon (10am GMT) when the headmaster announced over the public address system that all students should remain in their classrooms.
"I stayed in the corridor to listen to more instructions, having locked my classroom door. After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small-calibre handgun in his hand through the doors towards me, after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction.
"He was moving systematically through the school hallways, knocking on the doors and shooting through the doors. It felt unreal, a pupil I have taught myself was running towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand."
Mr Kiuru escaped and shouted at his pupils, who were still in the classroom, to jump out of the windows to safety. "All of my pupils were saved," he said.
Police later said that eight people had died, seven of them students and the eighth the school principal, who has not been named.
Auvinen's name was appended to a "manifesto" posted on the internet that claims that "humanity is overrated" and that "it's time to put natural selection and survival of the fittest back on tracks".
The document, which is part of a collection of files including photographs of a young man posing with a pistol, purports to be signed by Auvinen, who lists his aliases as "NaturalSelector89, Natural Seclector, Sturmgeist89 and Sturmgeist".
Sturmgeist89, taken from the German for "Storm Spirit", is the name used by the author of the internet video. Sturmgeist's profile on YouTube, which is largely a rant about the state of humanity, concludes: "I am the law, judge and executioner. There is no higher authority than me."
Miro Lukinmaa, a student at the school, told the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti that the gunman had fired at pupils and at police. "Suddenly people began running and shots were heard and began raining down," he said. "I saw injured people lying in the corridor. We started to run and followed [the crowd] in a panic. Everyone was trying to squeeze through a narrow door."
Another student, Tuomas Hulkkonen, told Helsingin Sanomat that he had known the gunman for ten years. He said that the man had been acting oddly in recent days and had drawn pictures of guns.
Police officers, some armed with automatic weapons, surrounded the school and a city official announced shortly before 4pm (2pm GMT) that the siege was over. The last shot was fired at 12.04pm (10.04am GMT). The gunman fired a single shot at police, who did not return fire, local agencies reported.
Hundreds of pupils and staff were evacuated from the Jokela complex, which houses both an upper secondary school and a comprehensive school.
The operation involved about a hundred police and rescuers, some with automatic weapons and body armour.
Police told reporters that the suspect was a member of a gun club, had a licence for a handgun and had neither a criminal record nor a history of threatening behaviour.
Despite having the third-largest per capita ratio of handgun ownership in the world, violent incidents are rare at Finnish schools. According to Finnish media, there have been four stabbings at schools since 1999. None of these caused fatalities.
The last major attack in the country came in 2002 when a young man killed himself and six others in a bomb blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki.
At least with his posting to YouTube and MySpace, we are able to get some sort of picture as to why he did this.
It sure would be nice to have a Cho’s manifesto. Bet he has similar motives as this. Though I always suspected that the real reason NBC won’t release the documents is because of the level of anti-Christian hatred expressed by Cho therein. Plus, the likelyhood that his writings reflect a lot of the popular culture, what the MSM is constantly harping on, and the anti-American teachings that are pervasive throughout what we call “higher learning” these days.
The above is just the opinion of this author, nothing more.
People make funny videos on YouTube, it seems to encourage a jovial approach to life. There are all types of videos on 'Tube, reflecting all apsects of life. Life encourages a sick approach to life, or he was just a nutter, the old Nature v Nurture debate, I think both. He would have got infamy without the use of 'Tube; he could have sent the video to the media, as did Seung-Hui Cho, put it on another website, or made a website just for his video. There were many school attacks before February 2005, when YouTube was set up.
Pekka The Pecker, Birmingham, West Midlands
Was it not possible for anyone who might have seen the video to have reported it? It seems that the school concerned could have been identified, and that would have been enough to have started an investigation.
Chris Clark, London, United Kingdom
I think this hammers the nail in " Civillians and Guns dont mix"
Old soldier
Charles Wheeldon, Wellington, New zealand
Horrible news, my heart goes out to the victims and to their families.
MA, Denver, Colorado, USA
everyone appears to want their 15 minutes of fame on YouTube. It seems to encourage a sick approach to life.
CA, Manchester, UK
It's a pity that seven innocent students dead beacuse of the gun .the adult must take care of their own child not only their but also their spirit.in order to avoid the caused fatalities.
Michaellzheng, Zhe jiang, China
8 now confirmed dead, including the Headmistress. 5 boys, two girls, and the Principal.
Parliament was suspended on hearing the news.
Michael Collinson, Helsinki, Finland