12-year-old Finland school shooter was motivated by bullying, say police

Bullying was the reason behind a school shooting on the outskirts of Helsinki on Wednesday, according to Finnish police. One 12-year-old was killed in the incident.

“The suspect has said during interrogations that he was the target of bullying, and this information has also been confirmed in the preliminary investigation by the police,” police said in a statement.

Finland’s flags will be flown at half-mast on Wednesday in observance of the national mourning following the shooting death of a 12-year-old student and the serious injuries of two more.

According to the Interior Ministry’s website, all public buildings and institutions will lower their flags starting at 8:00 am (05:00 GMT).

The ministry urged everyone in the nation to take part in the occasion.

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The fourth-largest city in Finland, Vantaa, saw a 12-year-old boy open fire at his school on Tuesday morning.

About eight hundred students between the ages of seven and fifteen attend the school.

The child conducted the shooting while using a mask and noise-canceling headphones, according to the Finnish TV station MTV Uutiset.

The 12-year-old victim passed away at the scene, and by the time the police came, the suspect had already left the school.

An investigation into murder and attempted murder has been launched.

After being apprehended in a “calm manner” an hour after the incident, the gun-wielding suspect confessed to being the gunman during a preliminary interrogation.

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According to authorities, there were no additional suspects.

They added that the guy was carrying a relative’s weapon.

“The police are investigating, among other things, the motive for the act and the reasons for the incident,” Detective Chief Inspector Marko Sarkka, who is leading the investigation, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sarkka added that the boy would not be incarcerated as he is under 15 years old and so cannot be held criminally responsible.

Police also said a technical investigation of the crime scene had begun at the school, which would continue on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in a statement that the incident was “deeply upsetting”, adding that his thoughts were with the victims, their parents, other pupils and teachers.

“In the coming days, we must be present for the children and young people, offer them words of comfort and show them that we care about them,” he said in a statement.

“They may be scared or have questions. It is important that we talk about the incident in our homes.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a post on social media platform X that he was “shocked” by the shooting.

“I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the deceased student,” Stubb said.

Elina Pekkarinen, Finland’s Children’s Rights Ombudsman, told Finnish news agency STT, that “for years (we have been repeating) that we need to take violence between children in society seriously”.

Acts of violence, particularly amongst children under 15 years old, have been on the rise for several years, she added.

Finland has already witnessed several gruesome school attacks in recent decades.

In November 2007, an 18-year-old man opened fire at a secondary school in Jokela, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Helsinki, killing the headmaster and a nurse along with six pupils 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, armed with a sabre, killed a 23-year-old woman and wounded nine others at a vocational school in the city of Kuopio.

(With agency inputs)