The suspect in the Austrian school shooting was found to be a 21-year-old former student who reportedly discarded plans to detonate a pipe bomb and wrote a "farewell" letter to his parents before the attack.
The incident resulted in the death of at least 10 people, including several students and a teacher as well as the shooter who shot himself inside a restroom. The gunman was later identified as Arthur A and believed to have built a pipe bomb.
Austria School Shooter Wrote Farewell Letter
Officials said that they also found a suicide note where he told his parents that had acted and carried out the attack of his "own free will." The shooter was revealed to have left the school two years ago without finishing his studies.
In his farewell letter, he apologized to his parents and older siblings but did not reveal his reasons for carrying out the shooting. The incident has been described as the worst in Austria's post-war history, according to The Guardian.
At the time of the attack, many students were taking their exams as eyewitnesses described how the gunman fired through classroom doors using the shotgun that he brought and later used a handgun to directly shoot other victims.
When the shooting first started, teachers told students to lie flat on the floor and barricade themselves in their rooms, using chairs to block the doors to keep the gunman from entering. Police arrived at the school after receiving a call from a nearby resident who heard gunshots.
The Gunman's Background
On top of the fatalities, 11 other people, aged between 15 and 26, were injured but are not in critical condition. Police officials said that the shooter was originally born in Styria and was living with his single mother in the Graz-Umgebung District, BBC reported.
The suspect's father, who was found to be of Armenian origin, had not been living with the boy and his mother since the couple separated. Officials said that the gunman legally owned two firearms which he used in the attack, adding that they will be forensically examined.
When talking about the farewell letter that the gunman wrote, Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria's Interior Ministry, said it was in analog and digital forms. He was also asked whether the shooter attacked the victims randomly or targeted them specifically.
The official answered by saying that this was also something that they are currently investigating, noting they do not want to speculate about the case, as per the Manila Bulletin.
