BERLIN (voa) – German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has led a nationwide moment of silence in front of the Erfurt school where a teenage gunman killed 16 people.
Chancellor Schroeder also attended a prayer service Saturday and left flowers in front of the school. He said a memorial for the victims of Germany’s worst massacre since World War II would be held on May 3.
Details are beginning to emerge about the teenage gunman who killed himself after a shooting rampage that left 13 teachers, two students and a police officer dead early Friday.
Police believe revenge is the motive behind the attack. The gunman, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser, had been expelled from the school for forging sick notes and skipping classes.
Officials in Erfurt say Mr. Steinhaeuser was a trained marksman who expertly shot many of his victims in the head. He was also a member of two gun clubs which gave him the right to own and use the pistol and a pump-action shotgun he carried with him.
Police say the gunman had hidden enough ammunition in a school bathroom and at his home to kill hundreds of people. They say a courageous teacher put an end to the deadly rampage, grabbing the boy, pulling off his mask and locking him in a room.
German officials are also investigating reports that the youth had sent a fellow student a mobile phone message warning him not to come to school that day.
The conservative challenger to Chancellor Schroeder in September’s general election, Edmund Stoiber, has called for a ban on violent computer games. The news magazine Der Spiegel says the gunman was an avid player of violent video games and a fan of an American heavy-metal band called “Slipknot”, whose members often wear macabre masks.
