Word: kretschmer
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...gunman didn't stop there. Kretschmer, who graduated from the school a year ago, fled on foot and headed toward central Winnenden. Along the way he shot a pedestrian - an employee of a near-by psychiatric clinic - before hijacking a green Volkswagen Sharan along with its terrified owner. Threatened at gunpoint, the driver, 41, turned his vehicle towards Stuttgart. But heavy traffic made the murderer worried and so they turned back again. After a wild trip down country roads, the car crashed into a roadside ditch on the Autobahn entry ramp near the town of Wendlingen am Neckar, some...
...much is known about the killer so far. The son of a businessman from the neighboring village of Leutenbach (pop. 4,800), he had started an apprenticeship after graduating with middling success in 2007. According to Baden-W?rttemberg education minister Helmut Rau, Kretschmer had been known in his former school as an "entirely unremarkable" student who had "never attracted attention in any fashion". Obviously, the politician added, the youngster must have had a "double identity". (Read "How the NIU Massacre Happened...
...Kretschmer's motive remains unknown. Police have speculated that he may have heard about yesterday's Alabama massacre, news of which broke in Germany overnight. A misogynistic motive is also being investigated since the vast majority of the victims are female...
...means by which Kretschmer obtained the murder weapon seem clear. A late-morning search of his parents' house has revealed that his father, a member of a local gun club, is the legal owner of 15 firearms; one pistol that had not been locked away, as well as many rounds of ammunition, were missing, the police say. Germany's gun laws are relatively strict but registered competitive marksmen, hunters and collectors can acquire guns after their physical and psychological soundness has been ascertained. (Cover: "The Columbine Effect...
Like his predecessors, Kretschmer very likely "suffered from a severe personality disorder," says Lothar Adler from The Ecumenical Hainich Clinic in Muhlhausen, Thuringia. Adler is the author of "Amok - A Study" which was based on his analysis of almost 200 school shootings and other killing sprees. The psychiatrist, who was part of the post-Erfurt counseling team, explains that very often killers have pronounced narcissistic traits, problems in forming normal relationships and are easily offended. They also tend to have low frustration thresholds and can harbor grudges for long periods of time. Physiologically, Adler says, "they frequently also lack serotonin...