Police said the suspect told during interrogation that “he was a victim of bullying”
A 12-year-old boy suspected of fatally shooting a classmate and wounding two girls at a Finnish school said he was motivated by bullying, police said Wednesday.
A day after the boy opened fire on a school in Vantaa, Finland, flags were flown at half-mast for a day of mourning in the Nordic country.
“The motive for this behavior has been confirmed to be bullying,” police said in a statement.
The statement added that the suspect stated during interrogation that “he had been the victim of bullying.” “This information was also confirmed during the initial police investigation.”
Police also said the young suspect had been a student at the Vietola school near Helsinki since the beginning of the year.
At a news conference Wednesday, Vantaa city officials would not comment on whether the school was aware of the bullying.
Finnish broadcaster MTV Uutiset reported that the boy was wearing a mask and noise-canceling headphones when he carried out the shooting on Tuesday morning.
The child killed, a Finnish boy, also 12 years old, died at the scene. When police arrived shortly after 9:00 a.m. after reports of shots fired, the suspect had fled the school.
threaten others
Police said on Wednesday that their investigation showed the suspect threatened other students on his way to school in a neighborhood north of the capital Helsinki, just south of Vantaa.
“Following the shooting, the suspect threatened them with a gun as they left Vietola School,” police said.
Police launched an investigation into murder and attempted murder but said the suspect had been handed over to social services because he was too young to be detained by police.
The gunman was arrested “calmly” within an hour of the shooting.
They said the revolver used in the shooting belonged to a close relative of the boy, adding that the matter was being investigated “as a separate firearms offence”.
The school, which has about 90 staff and 800 students aged 7 to 15, remained open on Wednesday, but students had shorter classes than usual, Vantaa deputy mayor Katri Karske told AFP.
Karsik said extensive support will be available to students and staff during the day and that the shooting will be discussed in an “age-appropriate way” at all the city’s schools.
The two injured girls remain hospitalized, according to police.
Children’s Hospital, where they were treated, confirmed on Tuesday that they were being treated for “serious injuries” but said details of their conditions would not be released to protect their integrity.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Tuesday the incident was “deeply disturbing”, adding that his thoughts were with the victims, their parents, other students and teachers.
“In the days ahead, we must care for children and young people, offer them words of comfort and show them that we care,” he said in a statement.
“They may be scared or have questions. It’s important that we talk about the incident at home.”
‘I do not understand’
Local resident Tuula Jouskari, 70, told AFP she believed parents needed to be there for their children and listen to them.
“We have good education and good schools. I don’t understand why that little boy … was in such a bad situation,” she said.
“For years (we have been repeating) we need to take violence between children in society seriously,” Elina Pekkarinen, Finland’s children’s rights ombudsman, told Finnish news agency STT on Tuesday.
Violence, particularly against children under 15, has been increasing for years, she added.
Threats were received at schools across the country following the shooting, police said Wednesday.
There have been a number of horrific school attacks in Finland in recent decades.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old man opened fire at a secondary school in Jokla, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Helsinki, killing the principal, a nurse and six students before turning the gun on himself.
A year later, in September 2008, 22-year-old Matti Juhani Saari killed 11 people at a vocational school in the western town of Kauhajoki.
In October 2019, a college student killed a 23-year-old woman and injured nine other people at a vocational school in Kuopio.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
