Austrian investigators slowly build profile of school shooter
GRAZ, Austria, June 12 (Reuters) - Austrian investigators were on Thursday slowly piecing together the character of the man who carried out the country's worst school shooting this week, with officials struggling to reach anyone who knew the deceased 21-year-old well.
The Austrian man, identified by local media as Arthur A., killed 10 people before shooting himself at his former high school in the southern city of Graz, sending shockwaves through Austria, which declared three days of national mourning.
Police found discarded plans for a bomb attack and a non-functional bomb during a search of his home after the shooting, but what triggered his destructive urges remains unclear.
Authorities said the suspect failed to complete his studies at the school. Local media reported the man, who lived with his mother on the outskirts of Graz, felt bullied at the school and wanted revenge, though police have not confirmed this.
Neighbours and officials in the commuter town of Kalsdorf bei Graz, where he lived, described a withdrawn, slight man who generally wore a cap and headphones, covering himself up.
Of over a dozen local residents spoken to about the suspect by Reuters, few wanted to talk at all. Some said they had seen him, but none said they knew him.
"He's not at all known in the place, that is, we weren't able to speak to either friends or acquaintances yesterday," local council official Sabine Jakubzig told Austrian television.
According to newspaper Heute, investigators said he did not have a personal account on social media. Police, who declined to comment, will hold a press conference later on Thursday.
Austrian magazine Profil said three months ago the suspect had started practising shooting at a club near his home, citing an unidentified regular at the range.
The man related how he had praised the young man for his accuracy, but received no response.
"He was like someone from another planet," Profil quoted the shooting club regular as saying.
Questions about the bullying allegations at the Dreierschutzengasse school the young man attended were put to its deputy head, Norbert Urabl, on national broadcaster ORF.
"Bullying is a very delicate topic. Bullying occurs on so many levels that it's very difficult to pinpoint the term bullying in this case," he said.
"But the fact is that, if bullying can be triggered, then more sensitivity is urgently needed to recognise bullying processes earlier."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
18 hours ago
- The Guardian
Graz gunman was first-person shooter games obsessive, police say
A gunman who killed 10 people at his former school in the Austrian city of Graz was an 'obsessive online first-person shooter', according to police, who gave detailed information for the first time about how he had planned the attack. The 21-year-old Austrian, who shot dead 10 people and then himself on Tuesday morning after going on a rampage at the school close to the city centre, had spent much of his free time playing what were described by police as 'ego shooting' online video games, in which participants typically use virtual firearms to kill enemies. Police said they believed the online community of players formed his main social contacts and that he was otherwise a loner who kept to himself. It emerged that among the people killed by the man, identified by the Austrian and German media as Arthur A, was one of his former teachers. Police said it was unknown if he had deliberately targeted her. The 59-year-old teacher was killed along with nine pupils – six female and three male – aged between 14 and 17. Nine people are still being treated in hospital for their injuries, including a male teacher, but all were stable and the last two in intensive care were to be moved out during the course of the day, health officials said. It also emerged on Thursday in a report by the state broadcaster ORF, which was confirmed by a spokesperson for the country's military, that the killer had recently failed a psychological test to enter the armed forces. However, he had even more recently passed the psychological checks required to be in possession of the weapons he used to carry out the killings, which he carried legally, police said. The man, who had attended the school and dropped out three years ago, was an apprentice at an industrial school. He lived alone with his mother and was not previously known to police. The shooting rampage, the worst in the country's history, has sparked an emotional debate over the state of the country's gun laws, which critics have said are too lax. During a visit to Graz on Wednesday evening, Belgium's president, Alexander Van der Bellen, said it was necessary for politicians to review the laws and to 'look into how it is possible for a 21-year-old to own handguns and long weapons and have the opportunity to purchase the appropriate ammunition for them and to cause this mayhem'. The country's national security council, set up in light of the 9/11 attacks in the US, was due to address the issue when it met on Thursday afternoon. Discussions have also begun about tightening security in schools across the country, with some calling for the installation of metal detectors at school gates. Michael Lohnegger, the head of the Styrian state criminal police office, said the man planned the attack in minute detail. He described how the man entered the main entrance of the BORG Dreierschützengasse school at 9.43am on Tuesday carrying a backpack containing his weapons and ammunition. Between 350 and 400 pupils were present on site at the time. 'He went into a toilet on the third floor and took various objects out of his rucksack. He put on a weapons belt with a hunting knife, a pair of shooting glasses and a headset, took out a Glock 19 pistol, a sawn-off Mercury shotgun, and loaded the weapons. 'At 9.47 he proceeded to carry out a seven-minute rampage through the school, going from the third to the second floor, and opened fire randomly on people in the school, who were from the 5th class. 'He finally went to the third floor where pupils of the 7th class were … fired at the closed doors of the classrooms until he was able to open them and then randomly shot at the people he found there.' He finally returned to the toilet cubicle on the third floor where he subsequently shot himself in the head at 10.07am, Lohnegger said. Owing to the fact that the first team of armed police entered the school building at 10.06am and heard no shots, investigators are working on the assumption that Arthur A might well have planned to carry out more killings, as he had plenty more ammunition on his person, but his knowledge that police were in the building may have prompted him to stop. There was no evidence that the killer knew the pupils he shot, Lohnegger added, but it had been established he had been taught by the teacher who was killed. There was no evidence that this was a motive behind the killing, he said. Lohnegger said Arthur A had worked out a 'very detailed plan of action. He had informed himself extremely precisely and given a lot of thought as to when he would approach each floor.' There was no information as to when he abandoned plans to deploy a homemade pipe bomb, found at his home, after it proved to be dysfunctional, although Lohnegger said it 'in theory contained all the components necessary' to work. Arthur A bought the shotgun in mid-April and the handgun several weeks later. He had been attending shooting practice at a range in Graz since March, Lohnegger said. He said people at the school had reacted 'very well' to the incident, after recent training in what to do in case of a shooting, by shutting doors and barricading themselves into classrooms. Police said they had yet to rule out that the killer may have had an accomplice who helped him in his planning or in his execution of the attack. Lohnegger described Arthur A as someone who lived a 'very reserved' life and 'was not very willing to participate in real life'. A search of the flat where he lived with his mother in a suburb south of Graz had uncovered a suicide note 'directed as an apology towards his family'. The first details of some of the victims began emerging on Wednesday evening. A 15-year-old Bosnian-Austrian girl called Hana was one of the first to be killed, her family said. She had been preparing to give a lecture to her class. Speaking on behalf of her Bosnian Muslim family, Sabahudin Hasić, a local imam, said they were 'utterly destroyed, as is our whole community. This deed is completely unimaginable.' Hana had wanted to study medicine, he said, describing her as a 'sunshine'. In a post on social media, her father wrote: 'My little mouse, may God give you paradise'. Standing next to her in class had been Lea B, who was also killed. The 15-year-old's family had come to Austria from Kosovo, and she was born in Austria. Sokol Haliti, the mayor of the family's home town in Viti, Kosovo, told Austrian media that the community, where her father was born and where her grandparents still live, was in mourning. 'It is a terrible tragedy. Not only for Austria. Lea was also one of us,' he said.
The Independent
19 hours ago
- The Independent
Austrian school shooter an introverted fan of online shooting games, say police
The 21-year-old man who carried out Austria 's worst school shooting was an introverted fan of online shooting games, criminal investigators said on Thursday. The Austrian, identified by local media as Arthur A, killed 10 people on Tuesday before killing himself at his former high school in the southern city of Graz. Police found discarded plans for a bomb attack and a non-functional pipe bomb during a search of his home after the shooting in Graz, the capital of the state of Styria. Police are still trying to establish a motive, but Michael Lohnegger, head of Styria's criminal investigation office, said findings indicated the man was very introverted and that his great passion was online first-person shooting games. "He led an extremely withdrawn life; he didn't want to take part in activities in normal life outside in the real world, he preferred to withdraw into the virtual space," he told reporters. Lohnegger said the man's closest friend had been questioned and that the shooter had social contacts with fellow online gamers. Police are checking whether he had assistance from other people in the run-up to the crime. Police said the rampage at the school lasted about seven minutes and that the man took his own life in a toilet about 10 minutes after beginning the attack. A few minutes earlier, the man entered the school with a rucksack, then went into a bathroom to prepare for his assault. Then he put on a weapon belt with a hunting knife, donned shooting glasses and a headset and armed himself with a Glock pistol and sawn-off shotgun, police said. He opened fire at random on people on the second and third floors of the school, shooting off the locks to the doors in one of the classrooms he attacked, according to Lohnegger. Most of the victims were apparently unknown to the shooter, but he did know one of the teachers who died, police said. It was unclear if that fact played a role in her death. Police are alert to potential copycat attacks, and on Thursday, a man caused alarm at Vienna's Technical University by throwing a package into the entrance area and shouting it was going to explode. No threat was identified. Psychological evaluation The shooter acquired the guns legally in April and May after passing a psychological evaluation for a necessary permit, and had practised shooting at a gun club since March, police said. Authorities said the man failed to graduate from the school, and Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported that after dropping out, he attempted to join the army but was deemed psychologically unsuitable due to his introversion. Local media reported that the man, who lived with his mother on the outskirts of Graz, felt bullied at school and wanted revenge. Police declined to confirm this. "There's no evidence from his private life that he ever expressed any anger or displeasure towards the school, pupils or teaching staff," Lohnegger said. Neighbours and officials in the commuter town of Kalsdorf bei Graz, where he lived, described a withdrawn, slight man who usually wore a cap and headphones, covering himself up. Of over a dozen local residents spoken to about the shooter, few wanted to talk at all. Some said they had seen him, but none said they knew him. The man left behind a farewell note and video in which he apologised to his family for his actions and thanked them, but they gave no indication of his motives, police said. Questions about the bullying allegations at the Dreierschuetzengasse school where the man attended were put to its deputy head, Norbert Urabl, on national broadcaster ORF. "Bullying is a very delicate topic. Bullying occurs on so many levels that it's very difficult to pinpoint the term bullying in this case," he said. "But the fact is that, if bullying can be triggered, then more sensitivity is urgently needed to recognise bullying processes earlier." If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@ or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
BreakingNews.ie
a day ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Austrian school shooter planned attack but motive still unclear, officials say
A man who killed nine students and a teacher at his former school in Austria and then took his own life planned the attack in detail, investigators have revealed. However, he appears to have shot his victims at random, and investigators have still not been able to ascertain his motive. Advertisement A police officer guards the entrance of a school where a former student opened fire (Darko Bandic/AP) The 21-year-old had left the BORG Dreierschutzengasse high school in Graz three years previously, breaking off his studies after attending for three years, police say. They said they knew of no personal connection between the gunman and the students he had shot, but that one of the two teachers he shot had once taught him. Officials were still investigating whether that was a factor in the attack. The incident prompted Austria to declare three days of national mourning and large numbers of candles have been laid in Graz's main square and outside the school. Advertisement The assailant, an Austrian man who lived with his mother near Graz and whom officials have declined to identify, used a Mercury double-barrelled shotgun and a Glock 19 handgun in the shooting. People commemorate the victims of a shooting at a school (Darko Bandic/AP) Michael Lohnegger, the head of Styria province's criminal police office, said that he arrived at the school on Tuesday morning with a backpack containing the weapons, and put on equipment including shooting glasses and a headset in the bathroom before starting a roughly seven-minute shooting spree. The gunman opened fire indiscriminately on the building's third floor before shooting open the locked door of a fourth-floor classroom and again firing indiscriminately, Mr Lohnegger told a news conference. Mr Lohnegger said that the gunman had enough ammunition to continue shooting and it was unclear why he had not. Advertisement The gunman then returned to the bathroom and fatally shot himself in the head. A search of his home uncovered a farewell letter and a video, which Mr Lohnegger said added up to 'an apology directed to his family for the crime and a general thank you', but offered 'no indication for the motive'. Investigators have yet to ascertain a motive for the shooting (Darko Bandic/AP) Authorities also found a handwritten note that showed he had planned the attack 'down to the smallest detail', setting out how he would proceed but giving no date for the crime. The note had suggested that he had lacked enough time to build a fully functional pipe bomb. Investigators had found one, but it would not have worked. Advertisement Mr Lohnegger said a picture had emerged of a 'very introverted person' who largely did not take part in real-world activities and that his great passion was playing online first-person shooter games. 'But even here, there is no information from his personal surroundings that he ever expressed any anger or resentment towards the school, students or teachers,' he added. The man had no previous police record and 'there were definitely no particular problems with him at this school'. The gunman was in unspecified vocational training at the time of the attack, investigators added. Advertisement Austrian President Alexander van Der Bellen attends a wreath-laying ceremony after a former student opened fire, killing 10 people and injuring many others before taking his own life (Darko Bandic/AP) He had bought the shotgun legally in Graz in early April and the handgun was bought from another shop in the city in late May. He had a licence to own the weapons that required a report from a psychological expert, which was allegedly produced in March. The gunman also took part in shooting practice five times in March at a shooting club in Graz using a hired firearm, Mr Lohnegger said. Six girls and three boys aged between 14 and 17 and a teacher were killed in the attack. Eleven people were wounded and authorities said that their lives were not in danger.
