School Shooter Linked To Pa. Plotter?

Police Say Finnish Student Gunman Had Online Contact With Aspiring Attacker In U.S.

(CBS/AP)  A teenager who admitted plotting a school attack near Philadelphia had chatted online about the Columbine massacre with a teenage outcast who killed eight people and himself in a high school shooting in Finland, the Pennsylvania boy's attorney said Monday.

But the teen was "horrified" when he found out about the Finnish attack and said he never would have suspected him of following through on a violent act, the attorney said.

Finnish police said material seized from the computer of Pekka-Eric Auvinen suggests the 18-year-old had communicated online with Dillon Cossey, 14, who was arrested in October for allegedly preparing a attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in suburban Philadelphia.

Cossey's attorney, J. David Farrell, said he showed Auvinen's online screen name to his client Monday and he rememebered communicating with him about video games and the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado and exchanging videos they found on the Internet.

"They had discussed certain video games and shared videos with each other," Farrell said. "Obviously, Columbine was a shared topic of interest."

Auvinen killed six students, a nurse and the principal Wednesday in Tuusula, about 30 miles north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki. He then shot himself in the head, and died hours later at a hospital.

Finnish investigators have said Auvinen left a suicide note for his family and foreshadowed the attack in YouTube postings. On Monday, Rabbe von Hertzen, a detective in the case, said Auvinen is believed to have written the suicide note on Nov. 5, suggesting he had planned the attacks for at least two days.

Police have described Auvinen as a bullied teenage outcast consumed with anger against society.

Cossey had amassed a stockpile of weapons, including a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, about 30 air-powered guns modeled to look like higher-powered weapons, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine high school attack in Colorado and violence-filled notebooks, authorities said

Authorities accused Cossey's mother, Michele, of helping him build his weapons cache.

Cossey admitted telling a friend that he wanted to stage an attack similar to the 1999 assault on Columbine High School in Colorado, telling him, "The world would be better off without bullies," according to Castor.

The arrest came the same day a 14-year-old in Ohio opened fire at his Cleveland high school, wounding four before killing himself.

[zootallures2]

Sadism has it''s price.

[zootallures2]

Heck of a job Patriot Act...lol!

Looks like western society makes suicide killers.

[slim1h2o]

Posted by octavianfdlr at 04:23 AM : Nov 13, 2007

All you have to do is look at the T''shirt that the kid is wearing(in the picture) to have a clue as to his thinking, at least in his world.

He doesn''t value human life, and probibly no life.

[octavianfdlr]

The use of labels like "bully" and "victim" (see the posts wattermelann, magoo2u, ToolMangler, and the quotes cited in the article) is not productive in the search for a solution to this problem. Neither are "anti-bullying laws" which will require the police or other enforcers to bully those convicted by a jury convinced by a bullying prosecutor that more bullying is the only solution.

Indeed, the real problems are labels like "bully," "whimp," and "victim," excuses like "deep psychological wounds," and a culture which glorifies violence and believes that the only way to solve a problem is to enable/require the government to bully its citizens into submission.

[fitedafuture]

I agree with tool, I once got beat up by about 8 people at the same time!!

[oeangus]

I taught grade school for two decades. Bullying was seldom an issue with the students of the handful of truly responsible and loving teachers I met over the years.

I myself worked recess duty every day, just to get outside and get to know all the kids on their turf - the playground. Meanwhile, many of my colleagues used their break time to go have a coffee in the staff room, or go off campus and have a smoke.

I can honestly say that any bullies in the school usually came from the classrooms of those teachers who showed little or no interest in their work, apart from their immediate classroom responsibilities.

[toolmangler-2009]

Bullies are victims also.

[magoo2u1]

Very well put. One problem with school administrators I have encountered is they were bullied as children and respond by stating that bullying takes place in society so get used to it. When the victim turns the tables and becomes the monster, they want to grab the victims and throw them out of school because the victim may go off the deep end. They will not address the probem.

[wattermelann]

The deep psychological wounds these attackers carry in their hearts and minds from bad experiences in school and potentially plan or carry out acts of violence and aggression against school should be dealt with in school and state. Most states do not have any anti-bullying laws in place to protect citizens from bullys. Most schools do not have policy in place preventing bullying in classrooms and on campus nor are there enough lessons taught in health education about bullying prevention. Some places there is a bullying video played for students but once they walk out that classroom door it is forgotten. There is not enough done about parents who plant the seed of bullying their own children and those children who continue the bullying in their social relationships with their peers on the playground and at school. There are organizations that are right now writing up and encouraging anti-bullying legislation that many states begin but put on hold and push aside, How many Columbines do we have to experience to get these laws passed and in place in our heartless, misguided society? I am glad this Cossey woman has been charged. Why didn''t she take the time to do her homework instead of taking the time to buy guns for her son? She was teaching at home the wrong attitude and the wrong lessons. Now she will pay dearly and loose the weight of ignorance.