BLITZ KRIEG PUBLISHING
Teen gunman in Germany kills 16, including teachers and students
By Donna Gundle-Krieg, March 11, 2009 Note: to comment on this and other stories about education, please go to Examiner.com
Tim Kretschmer, age 17, went on a shooting spree Germany and killed 16 people, including three teachers and ten students at his former school.
The shooting at the Albertville-Realschule school, which has 1000 students, lasted about two minutes, according to CNN International News. The school is located in Winnenden, a small town near Stuttgart.
This is so sad! Can you imagine being a family member of any of these murdered people? Can you imagine being the parents of the gunman? What provokes such madness?
The teenager, who was dressed in military gear, left the school and killed a nearby hospital worker before hijacking a car and driving to the nearby town of Wendlingen.
He then killed two more people before he was shot dead by police, authorities said. At least seven people were injured in the shootings.
Authorities had to seal off the small and quiet town of Winnenden during the intense manhunt.
Roberto Seifert, who works at a company next to the school, described the scene in the immediate aftermath of the shootings.
"Police are coming through the whole time. They're obviously looking all over town for him," he told Reuters.com by phone. "We've never had anything like this."
"No one seems to have an explanation for why this happened," said CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. "Police officers have heard that this young man didn't cause much of a buzz, wasn't someone who was negative or known for violence."
Police found a sizable collection of guns in his parents' home.
While this happened in faraway Germany, it occurs too frequently in the United States, too.
In fact, every day eight children in America are killed by guns, according to The Million Mom March.
The Million Mom March is a group of 75local chapters that was inspired to advocate for gun safety with children after a rash of school shooting in the late 1990’s.
As part of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the members of the Million Mom March believe that “all children have the right to grow up in environments free from the threat of gun violence.”
Don't you agree?
Stories by Donna Gundle-Krieg:
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