To quickly recap, on Monday morning, a 14-year-old walked into Joseph Lakanal Middle School in Aubagne, France, near Marseille, with a shotgun in a guitar case. He wounded the principal and a teacher and was disarmed before anyone else got hurt. By Tuesday, the French anti-terrorism prosecutor had taken over the case after analysis of his devices pointed to a probable affiliation with the so-called True Crime Community, and both of his parents had been taken into custody as investigators tried to figure out how he got his hands on the weapon.
Now, according to reports, the shooter has admitted to the shooting but denied any intent to kill. I wish the article I used as the source for this post had been more specific about that, because the obvious follow-up question is what exactly he did intend. He reportedly told investigators he planned the attack for several months, so we’re apparently supposed to believe that months of preparation, a shotgun, and a guitar were just a prank, bro…or frère? I’m pretty sure you can’t fire into a hallway and an occupied classroom and then claim, j/k lol.
However, the shooter did offer a motive, which will sound familiar to anyone who knows their school shooting history. Much like his American counterparts, he’s claiming revenge for harassment by teachers and classmates. Investigators say they haven’t found any evidence supporting those claims at this stage, which means for now it’s just his word against everyone else’s. I can’t help wondering whether his friends in the TCC had a hand in convincing him he was being persecuted.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office says the boy acknowledged being influenced by the community, although he denies carrying out the shooting in its name. Beyond that, the prosecutor says the seized devices revealed numerous accounts across ProtonMail, Discord, Snapchat, and TikTok, and that one of them was dedicated exclusively to reposting extremely violent content tied to the community, particularly about school shootings. Investigators describe his likely ‘membership’ in the TCC, and an account like that suggests he was deep into the subculture.
As far as I can remember, this is the first school shooter to acknowledge that the TCC influenced him, even though evidence suggests plenty of other shooters were. He now faces a judicial investigation on suspicion of attempted murder tied to a terrorist enterprise, along with terrorist conspiracy and weapons charges, and prosecutors have asked that he be held in pretrial detention.
Whatever happens next, the kid who says he never meant to kill anyone is the same kid who spent months planning and kept an account for school shooter content.
So it seems his ‘intent’ belies what the evidence indicates.
(Source)
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