Source: The Daily Telegraph

Steven Kazmierczak, at 27, looked like an average schoolboy - except that his arms were covered with disturbing images, including a doll from the horror movie Saw. Professors and students knew him as a bright, helpful scholar, but his past included a stint in a mental health centre. Kazmierczak allegedly had three tattoos done in recent months - one a skull being stabbed with a knife and another of the Saw character.

While searching for a motive for the Valentine’s Day attack, authorities questioned family and friends and tried to determine whether he had recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend. One person who knew the couple, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, said the couple’s relationship was on-again, off-again and “really rocky”. Kazmierczak was controlling, she said. “He was abusive, had a temper,” she said. “He didn’t actually hit her; he would push her around.”

It has also been revealed that the student was ‘outstanding, but erratic’. He also had a history of mental illness and had become erratic in the past two weeks after he stopped taking his medication, said university Police Chief Donald Grady. A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment centre said Kazmierczak had been placed there after high school by his parents. He used to cut himself and had resisted taking his medications, she said.

Kazmierczak spent more than a year at the Thresholds-Mary Hill House in the late 1990s, former house manager Louise Gbadamashi told The Associated Press. His parents placed him there after high school because he had become “unruly” at home, she said. He also had a short-lived stint as a prison guard that ended abruptly when he did not show up for work. He was in the Army for about six months in 2001-02, but he told a friend he had gotten a psychological discharge.

On February 9, Kazmierczak walked into a Champaign gun store and picked up two guns - a Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun. He bought the two other handguns at the same shop - a Hi-Point .380 on December 30 and a Sig Sauer on August 6. All four guns were bought legally from a federally licensed firearms dealer, said Thomas Ahern, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. At least one criminal background check was performed - Kazmierczak had no criminal record. Kazmierczak had a state police-issued FOID, a firearms owners identification card, which is required in Illinois to own a gun, authorities said. Such cards are rarely issued to those with recent mental health problems.

NIU President John Peters said Kazmierczak compiled “a very good academic record, no record of trouble” at the 25,000-student campus in DeKalb. He won at least two awards and served as an officer in two student groups dedicated to promoting understanding of the criminal justice system.

Kazmierczak (pronounced kaz-MUR’-chek) grew up in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village. He was a B student at Elk Grove High School, where school district spokeswoman Venetia Miles said he was active in the band and took Japanese before graduating in 1998. He was also in the chess club. On the door of Kazmierczak’s Champaign apartment, the building management posted a statement saying he had lived there since June 6, 2007. It called him a “a quiet resident who paid his rent, and did not otherwise come to the attention of the staff and management”, at the apartment complex.

Another school shooting happened last week, but this one took a back seat to what happened in Illinois. This one was personal.

Source: LA Times

An Oxnard junior high student who was shot in the head by a classmate earlier this week was declared brain dead Wednesday, and the 14-year-old male suspect now faces a first-degree murder charge, authorities said. Lawrence King, 15, was declared brain dead by two neurosurgeons about 2 p.m. at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. King’s body remains on a ventilator for possible organ donation. He was shot early Tuesday in a classroom at E.O. Green Junior High School.

Lawrence King

Police said the suspect, whose identity was not disclosed because of his age, shot King at least twice at the beginning of the school day and then fled the campus. The boy was apprehended by police a few blocks away and is being held in Juvenile Hall.

Police have not determined a motive in the slaying but said it appeared to stem from a personal dispute between King and the suspect. Several students said King and his assailant had a falling out stemming from King’s sexual orientation. The teenager sometimes wore feminine clothing and makeup, and proclaimed he was gay, students said. “He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails — the whole thing,” said Michael Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. “That was freaking the guys out.” If the suspect targeted King because of his sexual orientation, the case could rise to the level of a hate crime, authorities said.

MySpace Memorial

Let’s take a break for a moment from all this hosting nonsense (which is really bring us down) and try to lighten up the mood a bit by getting back to that little Finnish school shooting thing.

Apparently there are a few copycats in the wings:

Teenagers held in Sweden as fear of copycat killings grows

TWO Swedish teenagers, allegedly inspired by the school shooting in Finland, were arrested yesterday for conspiring to murder a school principal and a janitor. The boys, 16 and 17, were arrested in Stockholm after police received information that they were planning murder, Karin Solberg, a police spokeswoman said.

Rolf Oden, principal at the Enskede Gards Gymnasium, a secondary school in suburban Stockholm said: “There is a threat against me which … has been directed toward me personally, but I don’t want to get into it any more than that. These two boys are clearly inspired by the events in Finland.”

In Finland, meanwhile, hundreds of children panicked yesterday after an online threat claimed their school would be the next target.

Yesterday’s hoax, directed at a school in Kirkkonumm, about 45 miles from Tuusula (where Pekka-Eric went crazy), came as Finland’s government said it was planning to increase the age at which unsupervised gun use is allowed to 18.

Maarit Rossi, the principal of Kirkkoharju school in Kirkkonummi, said: “There was a threat on the internet.

“Someone posted a note with the username Sturmgeist (Pekka-Eric’s username), saying that the next target would be a Kirkkonummi Middle School.

Police said they regarded the threats aimed at Kirkkonummi as “a bad joke”.

Finland has previously resisted European Union plans to limit gun ownership to those 18 years or older, since Finns as young as 15 have had the right to own and use a gun alone.

Kirkkonummi Middle School, Finland

Police detain fake ‘YouTube killer’ copycat

Police in Finland have detained a 16-year-old boy who posted a video called “Maaninka massacre” on the YouTube website. Police said yesterday the boy said his video was a joke. The boy, who lives in Maaninka, eastern Finland, was detained on Friday and his computer has been confiscated, it said in a statement. The video threat was against Maaninka school.

And in America:

Accused Montgomery County teen exchanged e-mails with murderer

Finnish police are sifting through Web sites for links between the teenager who plotted a Columbine-style assault in Montgomery County and Pekka-Eric Auvinen. The teenagers had communicated by e-mail, apparently out of a common interest in the Columbine school shootings and violent video games.

Plymouth Meeting resident Dillon Cossey, 14, had been trading e-mails with the Finn and “recognized the screen name and recalled having contact,” said J. David Farrell, who represents Cossey. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. is taking a second look at material on Cossey’s home computer. Cossey told Farrell that in the e-mails, Auvinen “gave no indication he was going to do anything violent,” and that Cossey “offered nothing in the way of encouragement.” He learned of the incident from his attorney.

Cossey and Auvinen shared an interest in a video game series called “Hitman,” Farrell said, adding that they may also have had a mutual obsession with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the students responsible for the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. “Hitman,” which has reportedly sold more than 10 million copies, involves a genetically engineered, ruthless assassin known as Agent 47. A movie version is in the works.

Police seized the computer Oct. 10, along with a 9mm semiautomatic carbine, knives, live homemade grenades, BB guns, swords, violent videos, and a bomb-making manual. Cossey, a home-schooled student who admitted to his plans to attack Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, is awaiting a hearing to determine his treatment program, which could last until he turns 21. His parents took Cossey, an overweight youth, out of school because of incessant taunting and bullying.

“There appears to be a cadre of people who idolize Klebold and Harris from the Columbine massacre, of which Cossey was one, and perhaps the person in Finland is another,” Castor said.

This is what lunatic Finnish school shooter Pekka-Eric Auvinen (now deceased) left behind (and no, Odd Culture does not in any way endorse this idiot. However, we feel that this particular document is newsworthy) :
(info on the shooting here)

ATTACK INFORMATION

Event: Jokela High School Massacre.
Targets: Jokelan Lukio (High School Of Jokela), students and faculty, society, humanity, human race.
Date: 11/7/2007.
Attack Type: Mass murder, political terrorism (altough I choosed the school as target, my motives for the attack are political and much much deeper and therefore I don’t want this to be called only as “school shooting”).
Location: Jokela, Tuusula, Finland.
Perpetrator’s name: Pekka-Eric Auvinen (aka NaturalSelector89, Natural Selector, Sturmgeist89 and Sturmgeist). I also use pseydonym Eric von Auffoin internationally.
Weapons: Semi-automatic .22 Sig Sauer Mosquito pistol.

What do I hate / What I don’t like?

Equality, tolerance, human rights, political correctness, hypocrisy, ignorance, enslaving religions and ideologies, antidepressants, TV soap operas & drama shows, rap -music, mass media, censorship, political populists, religious fanatics, moral majority, totalitarianism, consumerism, democracy, pacifism, state mafia, alcholohics, TV commercials, human race.

What do I love / what do I like?

Existentialism, self-awareness, freedom, justice, truth, moral & political philosophy, personal & social psychology, evolution science, political incorrectness, guns, shooting, BDSM, computers, internet, aggressive electronic and industrial rock & metal music, violent movies, , FPS –computer games, sarcasm, irony, black humour, macabre artm mass & serial killer cases, natural disasters, eugenics
Natural Selector’s Manifesto

How Did Natural Selection Turn Into Idiocratic Selection?

Today the process of natural selection is totally misguided. It has reversed. Human race has been devolving very long time for now. Retarded and stupid , weak-minded people are reproducing more and faster than the intelligent, strong-minded people. Laws protect the retarded majority which selects the leaders of society. Modern human race has not only betrayed its ancestors, but the future generations too. Homo Sapiens, HAH! It is more like a Homo Idioticus to me! When I look at people I see every day in society, school and everywhere… I can’t say I belong to same race as the lousy, miserable, arrogant, selfish human race! No! I have evolved one step above!

Naturality has been discriminated through religions, ideologies, laws and other mass delusion systems. Individual, who is going through his/hers natural power process and trying to live naturally, but is being told that the way he acts or thinks is wrong and stupid, will usually have some reactions which might be considered as “psychological disorders” by the establishment. In reality they are just natural reactions to the disruption of natural power process. They will have some of the following (depending on individual’s personality): feelings of inferiority / superiority, hostility, aggression, frustration, depression, self-hatred / hatred towards other people, suicidal / homicidal thought etc… and it is completely normal.

Humans are just a species among other animals and world does not exist only for humans. Death and killing is not a tragedy, it happens in nature all the time between all species. Not all human lives are important or worth saving. Only superior (intelligent, self-aware, strong-minded) individuals should survive while inferior (stupid, retarded, weak-minded masses) should perish.

There is also another solution to the problem: stupid people as slaves and intelligent people as free. What I mean is that they who have free minds, are capable of intelligent existential and philosophical thinking and know what justice is, should be free and rulers… and the robotic masses, they can be slaves since they do not mind it now either and because their minds are on so retarded level. The gangsters that now rule societies, would of course get what they deserve.

Of course there is a final solution too: death of entire human race. It would solve every problem of humanity. The faster human race is wiped out from this planet, the better… no one should be left alive. I have no mercy for the scum of earth, the pathetic human race.

Collective Deindividualization: Totalitarianism & Delusions Of Democracy

Collective deindividualization is a phenomenon where individual will be trained as part of the mindless herd controlled by state, corporation, church or some other organization, group, ideology, religion or mass delusion system and adopt it’s rules, morality and codes of conduct. This phenomenon has been familiar in all despotic, authoritarian, totalitarian, monarchist, communist, socialist, nazi, fascist and religious societies troughout history. Also, the modern western democratic republics have the same phenomenon. It is just done so that people will think they are free and don’t realize they are being enslaved. Majority of people in society are weak-minded and ignorant retards, masses that act like programmed robots and accept voluntarily slavery. But not me! I am self-aware and realize what is going on in society! I have a free mind! And I choose to be free rather than live like a robot or slave. You can say I have a “god complex”, sure… then you have a “group complex”! Compared to you retarded masses, I am actually godlike.

Totalitarian governments rule people through education system, consumerism, mass media, monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force (police, military) and laws discriminating people who think differently than the majority. Democracy… you think democracy means freedom and justice? You are wrong. Democracy is a dictatorship of the moral majority… and the majority is manipulated and ruled by the state mafia. Modern western democracy has nothing to do with freedom or justice; it is totalitarian and corrupted system. Laws are made over the heads of the people and people are being brainwashed to support the system and connected to the institutional structures immediately after their birth. Societies are being ruled by manipulative and charismatic politicians who only care about the interests of majority, and who do not base their decisions on reason but emotions and feelings of the masses. These masses let the authorities of state to make all the important decisions for them. The masses will get an education, they study, get a job, go to work and vote in elections. They think they are free and don’t criticise or question the system. They have become robots. It is like a constructed mechanism in mind, that leaves little choice for an individual to think, talk and act independently.

Three Kinds Of Humans

There are three kinds of human personality types in this world:

1)individualistic human (3% of the world population)
2)manipulative human (3% of the world population)
3)mass human (94% of the world population)

#1 & #2 type of personalities are intelligent, creative and self-aware. They have chosen bit different paths paths. #3 type of personalities are less intelligent and less creative, weak-minded people controlled by #2 type of personalities. The percentages are only estimations though but are based on Gaussian distribution and history of human race and how humans have organized into societies. And this is the way it has always been ever since humans started to organize into communities.

Another way how to divide people is bit different but is based on the same facts, human nature and history. The division is based on the level of intelligence and quality of mentality:

1)intelligent (3% of the world population)
2)slightly retarded, so called “normal people” or “robots” (94% of the world population)
3)highly retarded, “vegetables” (3% of the world population)

Total War Against Humanity

Hate, Im so full of it and I love it. That is one thing I really love. Some time ago, I used to believe in humanity and I wanted to live a long and happy life… but then I woke up. I started to think deeper and realized things. But it was not easy to become existential… knowing as much as I know has made me unhappy, frustrated and angry. I just can’t be happy in the society or the reality I live. Due to long process of existential thinking, observing the society I live and some other things happened in my life… I have come to the point where I feel nothing but hate against humanity and human race.

Life is just a meaningless coincidence… result of long process of evolution and many several factors, causes and effects. However, life is also something that an individual wants and determines it to be. And I’m the dictator and god of my own life. And me, I have chosen my way. I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.

You might ask yourselves, why did I do this and what do I want. Well, most of you are too arrogant and closed-minded to understand… You will proprably say me that I am “insane”, “crazy”, “psychopath”, “criminal” or crap like that. No, the truth is that I am just an animl, a human, an individual, a dissident.

I have had enough. I don’t want to be part of this fucked up society. Like some other wise people have said in the past, human race is not worth fighting for or saving… only worth killing. But… When my enemies will run and hide in fear when mentioning my name… When the gangsters of the corrupted governments have been shot in the streets… When the rule of idioracy and the democratic system has been replaced with justice… When intelligent people are finally free and rule the society instead of the idiocratic rule of majority… In that great day of deliverance, you will know what I want.

Long live the revolution… revolution against the system, which enslaves not only the majority of weak-minded masses but also the small minority of strong-minded and intelligent individuals! If we want to live in a different world, we must act. We must rise against the enslaving, corrupted and totalitarian regimes and overthrow the tyrants, gangsters and the rule of idiocracy. I can’t alone change much but hopefully my actions will inspire all the intelligent people of the world and start some sort of revolution against the current systems. The system discriminating naturality and justice, is my enemy. The people living in the world of delusion and supporting this system are my enemies.

I am ready to die for a cause I know is right, just and true… even if I would lose or the battle would be only remembered as evil… I will rather fight and die than live a long and unhappy life.

And remember that this is my war, my ideas and my plans. Don’t blame anyone else for my actions than myself. Don’t blame my parents or my friends. I told nobody about my plans and I always kept them inside my mind only. Don’t blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read. No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: one man war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world! No mercy for the scum of the earth! HUMANITY IS OVERRATED! It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!

Humanity is Overrated
Justice renders to everyone his due.

- Pekka-Eric Auvinen (aka NaturalSelector89, Natural Selector, Sturmgeist89 and Sturmgeist).
I also use pseydonym Eric von Auffoin internationally.

Jokela High School Massacre

Pekka-Eric Auvinen

Guardian: At least seven dead in Finnish school shooting:

At least seven people died today when a gunman opened fire at a school in southern Finland. The shooting at the Jokela High School in Tuusula came just hours after a video was posted on the YouTube website predicting a school massacre. The YouTube video shows a photo of a school that appears to be Jokela High School. The photo then fragments to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a gun at the camera. The clip, entitled ‘Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007′, was posted by a user called Sturmgeist89. “Sturmgeist” means storm spirit in German.

Finnish news agency STT reported that the gunman was an 18-year-old man. A teacher at the school told the Reuters news agency the gunman was one of its pupils. “He was moving systematically through the school hallways, knocking on the doors and shooting through the doors,” said teacher Kim Kiuru. “It felt unreal, a pupil I have taught myself was running towards me, screaming, a pistol in his hand.” The teacher added that he helped his pupils escape through the classroom windows. One of those shot was the school principal, said Tuula Panula, a spokeswoman for the Tuusula municipality, which is some 60 km (40 miles) north of the Finnish capital Helsinki.

Possible Vid of the Killer
(weapon believed to be a SIG Sauer pistol.)

“At this moment it is seven [deaths] or more, higher,” Dr Eero Hirvensalo, the head of the medical response team, told Reuters. Police surrounded the school and a city official announced shortly before 2pm GMT that the siege was over. It was not clear whether the gunman had been apprehended or was still inside the school. Junior Constable Olli Laine said earlier police had evacuated students from the building, which houses both a middle and a high school.

Despite having the third-largest per capita ratio of handgun ownership in the world, violent incidents are rare at Finnish schools. According to Finnish media, there have been four stabbings at schools since 1999 but none of these were fatal. The last major attack in the country came in 2002 when a young man killed including himself and six others in a bomb blast at a shopping mall in Helsinki.
Update

Pekka-Eric Auvinen Initial reports are that the shooter’s name is Pekka-Eric Auvisen. According to this Finnish blog, here is (was) his YouTube Profile:

Sturmgeist89
Joined: October 19, 2007
aka NaturalSelector89 (3/15/2007 - 10/19/2007).

YouTube suspended my previous account but I am back now My new account name is German and means “Stormspirit” in English.

Name: Pekka-Eric Auvinen
Age: 18
Male from Finland.

I am a cynical existentialist, antihuman humanist, antisocial socialdarwinist, realistic idealist and godlike atheist.

SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM! JUSTITIA SUUM CUIQUE DISTRIBUIT! SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!

I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.

You might ask yourselves, why did I do this and what do I want. Well, most of you are too arrogant and closed-minded to understand… You will proprably say me that I am”insane”, “crazy”, “psychopath”, “criminal” or crap like that. No, the truth is that I am just an animl, a human, an individual, a dissident.

I have had enough. I don’t want to be part of this fucked up society. Like some other wise people have said in the past, human race is not worth fighting for or saving… only worth killing. But… When my enemies will run and hide in fear when mentioning my name… When the gangsters of the corrupted governments have been shot in the streets… When the rule of idioracy and the democratic system has been replaced with justice… When intelligent people are finally free and rule the society instead of the idiocratic rule of majority… In that great day of deliverance, you will know what I want.

Long live the revolution… revolution against the system, which enslaves not only the majority of weak-minded masses but also the small minority of strong-minded and intelligent individuals! If we want to live in a different world, we must act. We must rise against the enslaving, corrupted and totalitarian regimes and overthrow the tyrants, gangsters and the rule of idiocracy. I can’t alone change much but hopefully my actions will inspire all the intelligent people of the world and start some sort of revolution against the current systems. The system discriminating naturality and justice, is my enemy. The people living in the world of delusion and supporting this system are my enemies.

I am ready to die for a cause I know is right, just and true… even if I would lose or the battle would be only remembered as evil… I will rather fight and die than live a long and unhappy life.

And remember that this is my war, my ideas and my plans. Don’t blame anyone else for my actions than myself. Don’t blame my parents or my friends. I told nobody about my plans and I always kept them inside my mind only. Don’t blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read. No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: one man war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world! No mercy for the scum of the earth! HUMANITY IS OVERRATED! It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!

Justice renders to everyone his due.
Country: Finland
Occupation: Unemployed Philosopher, Outcast
Companies: Human Race (evolved one step above though)
Interests and Hobbies: Existentialism, Freedom, Truth, Misantrophy, Social / Personality Psychology, Evolution Science, Political Incorrectness, Women, BDSM, Guns (I love you Catherine), Shooting, Computer Games, Sarcasm, Irony, Mass / Serial Killers, Macabre Art, Black Comedy, Absurdism
Movies and Shows: The Matrix, A View To A Kill, Falling Down, Natural Born Killers, Reservoir Dogs, Last Man Standing, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Butcher MD (aka Zombie Holocaust), Saw 1-3, Lord Of War, The Deer Hunter, True Romance, The Untouchables, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Idiocracy, They Live, Apocalypse Now, End Of Days, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Dr. Strangelove, House MD (TV), Monty Python, TV Documentaries Relating To History
Music: KMFDM, Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Nine Inch Nails, Grendel, Impaled Nazarene, Macabre, Deathstars, The Prodigy, Combichrist, Godsmack, Slayer, Children Of Bodom, Alice Cooper, Sturmgeist, Suicide Commando, Hatebreed, Suffocation, Terrorizer
Books: Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), 1984 (Orwell), Brave New World (Huxley), The Republic (Plato), all works of Nietzsche ”

Update #2

From hs.fi:

Hospital sources confirm that seven people were killed in a shooting incident at a school in Jokela in the municipality of Tuusula north of Helsinki on Wednesday. The suspected shooter at the Jokela School Centre was arrested after a siege. The 18-year-old pupil of the school was armed with a handgun. There were initial unconfirmed reports of at least two other deaths. Pupils were evacuated to the nearby Perttu School and Jokela Church.

Tuomas Hulkkonen, a member of the graduating class of the upper secondary school, says that he has known the gunman for ten years since the lower grades. Hulkkonen says that in recent days he had been acting strange, drawing pictures involving firearms. When asked about it, he said that he was joking. He also said that the suspected gunman had shooting as a hobby. A teacher at the school characterised the suspect as a militant radical. He had been interested in both extreme left and extreme right-wing ideas, as well as history and philosophy.

A crisis centre has been set up to relay news to parents, who are asked to call 09-4172131 for more information. The Finnish Red Cross has also set up a hotline for those needing help in dealing with the crisis. The telephone number is 020366266. The government has convened over the shooting, and is scheduled to hold a press conference on the event later in the evening.

Update #3

The killer’s “manifesto” here.

Update #4

8 dead, including the principal.
Auvinen is currently in the hospital after shooting himself in the head.

And KMFDM is probably like: Oh no, not again!

Update #5

Shooter Pekka-Eric Auvinen has died.