Pekka-Eric Auvinen has been identified as the madman who went wild in a shooting spree in Finland, at the Jokela High School.
A national day of mourning is being held in Finland
after an 18-year-old man went on a gun rampage at his school and killed
seven pupils and a teacher.
The gunman, reportedly identified as Pekka-Eric Auvinen, shot himself in the head and later died in hospital.
The shooting happened in Tuusula, some 50km (30 miles)
north of Helsinki, and officials have set up a crisis centre to help
those affected by the tragedy.
The gunman gave a warning of the attack in a video posted on the internet.
The home-made film called "Jokela High School massacre
11/7/2007" shows a young man pointing a gun and declaring himself a
"social Darwinist" who would "eliminate all who I see unfit".
Correspondents say the video is similar to the one made
by Cho Seung Hui, who sent a recording of himself to the US NBC
television network before killing 32 students at Virginia Tech
University in April.
As Reuters reported on his use of YouTube:
The posting on YouTube of a clip announcing a school shooting in
Finland before it happened shows how self-shot videos have become the
favored means for modern killers wanting to get their message across.
The nature of 24-hour media means such videos are also likely to get
worldwide attention very quickly in a way which letters never could.
Seven children and the school principal were killed on Wednesday
when a fellow pupil opened fire at a school in southern Finland, hours
after a clip posted on video sharing Web site YouTube predicted a
massacre there. The shooter later died in hospital after shooting
himself in the head.
The YouTube video, set to a hard-driving song called "Stray Bullet,"
shows a still photo of a low building that appears to be the Jokela
High School.
The photo breaks apart to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a handgun at the camera.
"Go back 50 years or 25 years, they wrote letters and now they’ve
moved onto YouTube," Mike Berry, a professor in criminal psychology,
told Reuters. "He’s just using today’s modern facilities. Young people
use YouTube instead of a pen and paper.
"I don’t think this will produce copycat situations but what I do
think is that people who want to make a message will see this as a new
avenue."
The YouTube video, entitled "Jokela High School Massacre – 11/7/2007," was posted by a user called Sturmgeist89.
RIP for the seven.
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