Turkish school shooter used image referencing 2014 US mass killer, police say

ANKARA – A 14-year-old student who shot at least nine people dead, including eight of his fellow pupils, at a school in south-eastern Turkey had used an image referencing a 2014 US mass killer, Elliot Rodger, on his WhatsApp profile, the Turkish police said on April 16.

In Turkey’s second school shooting in just two days, the middle school student also wounded 20 other people in the attack on April 15 in Kahramanmaras province before taking his own life, shocking a nation where school shootings are very rare.

In a statement, the Turkish police department said initial findings showed that the assailant had used an image referencing the US gunman Rodger, who killed six college students near Santa Barbara, California, in 2014.

“Initial findings indicate no connection to terrorism, the incident is believed to be an individual attack,” the statement also said.

Rodger had expressed frustration about his lack of success with women in an internet manifesto before his rampage, and he was later praised by a number of perpetrators of school shootings.

It was not immediately clear whether the Turkish teenager had the same motivation as Rodger.

The attacker used five pistols that belonged to his police officer father in the attack, and the court jailed the father pending trial, the Kahramanmaras prosecutor’s office said in a separate statement on April 16.

In its examination, the prosecutor’s office found a document on the attacker’s computer dated April 11 that indicated a major attack would be carried out “in the near future”.

Separately, 83 people across Turkey have been detained for “glorifying crime and criminals” since the school shootings on April 14 and 15, the police said, adding that the authorities had blocked access to 940 social media accounts and 93 Telegram groups for the same reason. REUTERS