Police: ‘Sixth-grader Killed In Finnish School Shooting’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
HELSINKI (Worthy News) – A child has died and two others have been seriously wounded in a shooting at a school in Finland carried out by a minor, police said.
The 12-year-old suspect was taken into custody after three other 12-year-olds were shot at the Viertola school in the city to the north of the capital, Helsinki, officials confirmed.
Education Minister Anna-Maja Henriksson broke into tears when speaking to the media hours after the attack in a country where gun violence among youths is rare.
The children had just returned from the Easter holiday when the bloodshed began early Tuesday. “One 12-year-old child will never again return home from school,” the minister explained.
Initially, reports said three were injured, but one of them soon died, according to police.
The suspect ran off as soon as police arrived and was eventually detained “in a calm manner” in the northern Siltamaki district of Helsinki at 09:58, according to investigators.
The arrest of the boy was made without further violence in the Helsinki suburb of Siltamaki, 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) south of the Viertola school in Vantaa district, police added.
PASSING CAR
A video taken from a passing car showed the suspect being pinned down beside a road in the area.
It wasn’t immediately clear what motivated the suspect to open fire in a classroom early Tuesday.
Children under the age of 15 are not criminally liable in Finland. The suspect has not been remanded in custody and will be placed in the care of social services after further questioning, according to sources familiar with the case.
The suspect reportedly used a gun licensed to a close relative. Gun ownership is widespread in Finland, and children over 15 can have licenses to use other people’s firearms.
The many firearms have been linked partly to a strong military tradition in the Nordic nation, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.
Worried about a possible armed confrontation with Russia, Finland joined the NATO military alliance in April 2023, just over a year after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Finland has long had one of the highest murder rates in Western Europe, but experts say those cases, often related to alcohol or domestic abuse, usually involve knives rather than guns.
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