Kauhajoki school killer planned shootings for two years

NBI announces results of investigation

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Matti Saari, the gunman who opened fire on students and teachers at a vocational college in Kauhajoki in September last year, made the final decision for his rampage on the evening before the massacre. However, investigators into the killings he had been planning the action for at least two years.
      Saari killed ten people at the school, and took his own life.
     
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) made public its report on the massacre on Thursday. The head of the investigation, Jari Neulaniemi, called the Kauhajoki school killings the most serious single crime during Finland’s independence.
      The police have investigated the event as a case of ten murders and 12 attempted murders.
     
The NBI says that a day before the shooting spree, Saari recorded a video, in which he said that he planned to kill many people. He had also left a handwritten message at his home, in which he said that he had been planning such an action since 2002. In his message he also said that he hated people and society, and had always wanted to murder as many people as possible.
      After the shootings, Saari called a friend from school and told him that he had planned the killings for two years.
     
According to a psychological evaluation conducted after his death, Saari’s personality and his life experiences, as well as events of the recent past meant that the event was a typical case of suicide; Saari’s personality had been affected by previous experiences of school bullying, although this had not taken place in Kauhajoki.
      On the night before the rampage, Saari recorded videos, in which he revealed his plans. After six in the evening, he recorded a video at a shooting range, in which he says, in English “you will die next”, and “Goodbye”.
      About an hour later he recorded another video showing the school building, and Saari himself. On the video he says that he planned to kill many people at the school.
     
Nine of the victims had been found in a single classroom, and one was found in a hallway.
      A recording made at the emergency response centre found that a total of 37 shots were fired during a period of nine minutes. One of the pupils had called the emergency number from the class, and the telephone line from the class remained open for more than 25 minutes.
      Police say that he fired at least 157 shots with his .22 calibre pistol, based on the number of shell casings recovered at the school and vicinity.
      There were 118 bullet holes in the school structures and property in the school.
      Police had amassed over 2,300 pages of material during the investigation. About 730 pages are to be made public.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  School shooting in Kauhajoki - Eleven dead, many injured (23.9.2008)
  Police say Saari fired nearly 200 shots, spoke on phone during school shootings (30.9.2008)
  NBI struggles to monitor Internet for potentially dangerous content (26.9.2008)
  Kauhajoki police officer claims there were no legal grounds to confiscate killer´s handgun (27.3.2009)

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