HELEN PIDD
THE 17-YEAR-OLD gunman was an unexceptional student who left school last summer to begin an apprenticeship.
Named locally as Tim Kretschmer, he was “never conspicuous” according to the regional education minister, Helmut Rau. He had
“never in any way” stood out, Mr Rau said, adding that he must have had a “split personality” to commit such an atrocity.His father, a respected businessman, belonged to the local gun club and had a small arsenal, according to Jurgen Kiesl, the mayor of a nearby town. The family were well integrated into the community in Leutenbach, the suburb of 5,000 people where they lived. Mr Kiesl twice awarded Kretschmer prizes for sporting achievements.
Photos have emerged of a slightly pudgy, bespectacled youth, and one image purporting to show Kretschmer in a table-tennis tournament aged 12.
A neighbour told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that he was a keen table-tennis player.
Another neighbour, Thomas (19), said he had played with the teenage gunman as a child, but that he had become “quite peculiar” and had a number of air rifles in his bedroom. Michael V (19), who lived nearby, said
Kretschmer had “thousands” of horror videos.
One former classmate said: “Tim was always very withdrawn. He never just came up and talked to you. He just used to play ball games.” – ( Guardian service)[/b]
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0312/1224242738948.html
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