GERMANY: German official says teenage gunman who killed 15 people in Winnenden had warned of his plans in an internet chatroom

Record ID: 323262

  • Title: GERMANY: German official says teenage gunman who killed 15 people in Winnenden had warned of his plans in an internet chatroom
  • Date: 14th March 2009
  • Summary: WINNENDEN, GERMANY (MARCH 12, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (German) INTERIOR MINISTER OF BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, HERIBERT RECH, SAYING: "Shortly before the crime took place, the following entry posted around 2:45 am on Wednesday was found in the chat room of an internet portal - and I quote: "Shit, Bernd, I have had enough. I am sick of this slovenly life. Always the same. Ever
  • Embargoed: 29th March 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC1DPHU4PD8FYGKCPNYPW6HG4X
  • Story Text: A teenager who killed 15 people in a shooting spree in southwest Germany on Wednesday warned a chatroom partner about his plans the night before the killings, a German official said.
    Heribert Rech, interior minister of the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, told a news conference on Thursday (March 12) that a 17-year old in Bavaria had communicated with Tim Kretschmer in a chatroom the night before he entered his former school and killed students and teachers.
    "I've had enough," Rech quoted from the chatroom message which appeared to have been left by Kretschmer only a few hours before the massacre in the town of Winnenden.
    "Always the same. Everybody's laughing at me. No one sees my potential. I'm serious. I have weapons and I will go to my former school in the morning and have a proper barbecue.
    Maybe I'll get away. Listen out. You will hear of me tomorrow. Remember the place's name: Winnenden."
    Rech said Kretschmer's chatroom partner had not taken the message seriously at the time but had told his father after he saw the reports of the shootings.
    Kretschmer, who police say shot himself after his killing spree, had been treated for depression last year but had broken off his treatment in September, Rech said.
    German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble doubted that weak arms laws were to blame for the killing spree. "I cannot see what change in our weapons law could have changed anything about what happened. We are checking everything but our arms law is very strict and I do not believe that anything can be done about this in the short term. We have to think more about what we can change in our free society, do we need tighter control and restrictions of access to violent images and the depiction of violence in the media more," Schaeuble told journalists in Berlin.
    A coach at former Kretschmer's sports club in Erdmannhausen said he could not believe the 17-year-old's actions: "I could not believe that he is actually capable of acting this aggressively. I know him as a quiet young man," Eckehard Weiss from the table tennis club TTV Erdmannhausen said.
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