GermanyProfileStuttgart school gunman was an unassuming studentThe 17-year-old gunman responsible for yesterday's school shooting in south-west Germany was "unremarkable", an unexceptional student who never did anything to arouse suspicion, according to local education authorities in Stuttgart.
Tim Kretschmer, was shot dead by German special branch officers after killing at least 10 of his former classmates as well as three teachers and other members of the public. He left Albertville school last summer with qualifications equivalent to GCSEs. He went on to begin an apprenticeship.
He was "never conspicuous", Baden-Württemberg's education minister, Helmut Rau, said. The youth had "never in any way" stood out, said Rau, adding that the boy must have had a "split personality" to commit such an atrocity.
Others speculated that he had perhaps been influenced bythe US shooting in Alabama the night before, in which at least 11 people were killed. Other theories circulated that rejection by a girlfriend had driven the teenager to murder, drawing attention to the fact that almost all the school victims were female.
The teenager's father, Jörg, who runs a packaging company that employs 20 staff, including his wife, Ute, was a member of the local gun club and had a small arsenal of weapons, according to Jürgen Kiesl, the mayor of a nearby town.
He said the family was normal and well integrated into the community in Leutenbach, the suburb of 5,000 people where they lived.
Jörg Kretschmer had taken his son to the Leutenbach gun club where they would fire high-calibre weapons together. He stored his weapons in a locked cabinet at their comfortable home, apart from one Beretta handgun, which his son took, along with 50 rounds of ammunition, local media reported.
Kiesl twice awarded Kretschmer prizes for his sporting achievements, and said his father was a well-respected businessman. "I can't understand what could have brought this young man to do such a thing," he said.
Reiner Wehaus, a friend of the teenager who shared his love of guns, said: "I knew his weapons really well. These were mainly air pistols, which fire pellets. He got himself his own arms cabinet and that covered several square metres of his wall – I reckon about 30 to 40 weapons.
"Every day he went shooting in a forest somewhere behind the house. He was a rather good shot."
Wehaus said the friends would have air pistol shootouts in the woods, with the boys wearing protection from the pellets. "Once or twice a year we would have air gun battles in the summer," he told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper. "Every one had protective goggles. He always shot me."
Kretschmer's profile on the social networking site Kwick.de gave the image of a young man devoid of passion. "What do I like? Nothing," it said. "What do I hate? Nothing. Job? I'm afraid I'm still a pupil."
Photos have since emerged of a slightly pudgy, bespectacled youth, and one image purporting to show Kretschmer in a table-tennis tournament aged 12.
A neighbour told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that he was a keen table-tennis player who always wore dark clothing.
Another neighbour, Thomas, 19, said he had played with the teen gunman as a child, but had not seen him much in recent years. He had become "quite peculiar", said Thomas, adding that Kretschmer had a number of air rifles in his bedroom.
Michael V, another 19-year-old who lived nearby, said Kretschmer had "thousands" of horror videos.
One former classmate said today: "Tim was always very withdrawn. He never just came up and talked to you. He just used to play ball games."
Another classmate told Spiegel that Kretschmer, an only child, used to get "very frustrated", and hadn't passed his exams last year. "He was simply no good at school," he said, adding that Kretschmer had "become more of a loner" in the past few years.
Despite appearances, he wasn't completely forgettable: when he strolled into his former school yesterday dressed in a black combat uniform with his face uncovered, he was immediately recognised by teachers and former classmates.
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