German school rampage 'happened in seconds'

updated 7:50 p.m. ET March 11, 2009

WINNENDEN, Germany - The 17-year-old had no criminal record and authorities say he was barely noticed in school until he returned Wednesday with a handgun and a purpose.

Entering the high school where he graduated last year, he burst into morning classes and opened fire, taking students and teachers by complete surprise.

"Children were sitting at their tables, with pencils still in their hands, their heads fallen over on the table," said regional police director Ralf Michelfelder, describing the grisly scene that his officers found. "Most of them had shots in their head — it must have all happened in seconds."

Police identified the gunman only as Tim K. But the name on the mailbox at his parent's home was Kretschmer and local media identified him as Tim Kretschmer.

Left a cache of ammunition
The suspect went to three classrooms, killing nine students and three teachers before fleeing the building when police arrived on the scene.

It was there the plan seemed to break down. Police said he left a cache of ammunition at the school, indicating that he had planned more killings there.

"I heard two shots and then screaming," said a 15-year-old student who gave her name only as Betty. "At first I thought it was a joke, but then someone called, 'Run, run!' and I saw students jumping out of the windows and took off running."

"Our officers were very quick," said Baden Wuerttemburg state interior minister Heribert Rech. "Through the immediate police intervention they were able to prevent a further escalation of the crime."

There was no immediate indication of motive, but the gunman's victims were primarily female: eight of nine students killed were girls, and all three teachers were women. Three men were killed later as the suspect fled.

Sabienne Boehm, 12, said she recently had met the shooter and that he had claimed fellow students at the high school had mocked him and teachers there ignored him.

Three weeks ago, she said, he showed her a note. "He wrote to his parents that he's suffering and he can't go on," she told the AP outside a memorial service at a town church late Wednesday.

The dark-haired teen, shown wearing glasses in pictures on German television, apparently took the weapon from his father's collection of 16 firearms along with a "multitude of ammunition," police said. His father was a member of the local gun club and kept all the weapons locked away except for the pistol, which was kept in the bedroom.

A 17-year-old who would give only his first name, Aki, said he had studied with the shooter at a private business school, and described him as a quiet, reserved person.

Aki said the two played poker together, both in person and online, as well as a multiplayer video game called "Counter-Strike" that involves killing people to complete missions.

"He was good," Aki said.

Teenagers were sobbing violently and clinging to each other as they left a church service to the victims Wednesday.

Police said the suspect was a below-average student at the school of about 1,000 pupils, but managed to graduate last year.

"He was lower than average, and he wasn't engaged in school events," Michelfelder said.

A sister of the suspect still attends the school.

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