The immediate relatives of the victims of last year’s school shooting in Kauhajoki are claiming that the police inspector who reversed a decision to confiscate the gunman Matti Juhani Saari’s semi-automatic pistol was acting under the influence of alcohol.
This information is indicated by an application for a summons submitted to the Kauhajoki District Court on Thursday by the families of the victims, reports the commercial television station MTV3.
According to the families, the police had already made a decision to revoke Saari’s permit and to take the gun from him, but they had not managed to reach him on September 19th 2008.
On the following day, the accused police inspector reversed the decision, even though he had been made aware of the risk of a potential school shooting incident.
According to the families, the inspector had made his decision at a wedding reception, acting under the influence of alcohol.
On September 23rd 2008, Saari shot and killed ten people at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, before turning the gun on himself. Saari later died of his injuries in hospital in Tampere.
Legal proceedings in the case are to begin at the Kauhajoki District Court next Thursday.
The prosecutor says that the police inspector was guilty of negligence as he failed to confiscate the gunman Matti Saari’s pistol before he started to carry out his fatal plans.
The prosecutor demands that the inspector be fined for negligent dereliction of duty.
