Gunman Shoots Up Greek School, Injuring 3 And Killing Self

ATHENS, Greece — A teenage gunman who wounded three people at a college in Greece and killed himself had warned of the attack hours earlier on an Internet posting that included photographs of him posing with weapons, police said.

The 19-year-old man, armed with two handguns and a knife, opened fire at the vocational training college in western Athens and then shot himself in the head, authorities said. He died in hospital several hours later.

One student was shot in the chest and seriously wounded and two men were shot outside the building and suffered lighter injuries, police and Health Ministry officials said.

The gunman left a note accusing his fellow students of picking on him, and posted the message on a social networking site.

"I have no reason to continue living. But, unluckily for you, I'm too selfish to leave and let you keep living ... ," he said in the note which was written in Greek.

"For me, you are all garbage. ...Whoever I see on the morning of April 10 will immediately become a target," he wrote, adding that he had been "rejected" by someone he had fallen in love with. "Until now, I have received nothing but rejection and contempt from those around me."

Police confirmed the man seen on the posting on the site was the 19-year-old gunman, whom they identified as Dimitris Patmanidis, an immigrant from the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia. Included in the posting _ put up about three hours before the attack _ are 17 photographs, several of which show the man pointing a gun at the camera.

Police seized a computer from the youth's home. They also said they were trying to determine where he got the weapons he used.

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The youth had apparently planned to take more lives, police said, because he was carrying two guns and because of the language used in the Internet posting. He also had 66 9mm bullets, they said.

According to the police account, the gunman arrived around 8:45 a.m., a quarter of an hour after lessons had started at the OAED state unemployment agency's training college in the Athens Rendi district.

He shot the student victim on a college stairwell leading to the second floor before running out. He then shot two workers at a nearby shop who tried to stop him, one in the leg and the other in the arm. Then he went to a park close to the school and shot himself in the head, police said.

The injured 18-year-old student was shot in the chest, arms and legs, and the other two men had lighter injuries, the Health Ministry said. The two were identified by police as a 23-year-old Greek and a 47-year-old Albanian.

Fellow students and college staff described the gunman as a loner who favored black clothing and long overcoats.

"He was generally very well behaved. Teachers told me he did not socialize with the other kids," said college director Apostolos Pyrgolios, who witnessed part of the shooting.

"I heard a popping noise. I thought it was firecrackers and went to see what was happening. I saw Dimitris. He had a gun pointed at me and told me to get out the way. Then he ran out the building," he said.

Police spokesman Panayiotis Stathis told The Associated Press that the gunman shot his fellow student four times.

"It seems his motive was revenge," Stathis said.

Comments

[LMPE]

Will Arianna have a comment about this event in her native country?

[OverIt]

If someone was going to die, at least it wasn't the innocent bystanders. I hope they pull through. But this is another example of the failure of mental health systems everywhere. This is NOT normal. Even if it happens more often lately.