Turkish school shooter used image referencing 2014 U.S. mass killer, police say
A 14-year-old student who shot at least nine people dead, including eight of his fellow pupils, at a school in southeastern Turkey had used an image referencing a 2014 U.S. mass killer, Elliot Rodger, on his WhatsApp profile, Turkish police said on Thursday.
In Turkey’s second school shooting in just two days, the middle school student also wounded 20 other people in Wednesday’s attack 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 U.S. 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.
Read more: Reuters