Teenage gunman spoke of intentions online before attack

TIM Kretschmer, the teenage gunman who on Wednesday killed 15 people, including 12 pupils and teachers, at his former school, spoke of his intentions on the internet the night before the massacre, it was claimed yesterday.

At 2:47am on Wednesday, less than seven hours before he would don a black combat suit and gas mask and arm himself with his father's handgun, the loner spoke in cyberspace about his blueprint for murder, it was reported.

However, last night, police faced a setback as they struggled to authenticate an internet posting, in which Kretschmer allegedly told a teenager in Bavaria via a chat site: "I have had enough… I am fed up with this bloody life. Always the same bloody life.

"Everybody laughs at me and nobody recognises my potential. I mean it seriously. I have weapons here, and I am going to my old school tomorrow and have a proper barbecue."

Then, the web chat added: "Perhaps I will escape. Keep your ear to the ground. Winnenden is the name. Please don't say anything to the police. No worries."

The message also contained the web acronym LOL, which stands for "laugh out loud".

The father of the boy with whom Kretschmer was allegedly chatting contacted the 17-year-old's father on Wednesday afternoon about the disturbing conversation. But by then it was too late.

However, a joint statement released late last night by regional police and Stuttgart prosecutors said that, "in the course of the afternoon, doubts arose about the veracity of the internet chat".

Police spokesman Klaus Hinderer said a search of Kretschmer's computer had shown no trace of his having made the chat room posting.

A message sent yesterday to the site – krautchan.net – said, "No killing spree was announced here." Prosecutors said they were trying to reach the US-based provider of the site.

Meanwhile, authorities believe that Kretschmer may have killed even more than the 12 victims at the school had he not been foiled by a coded message announced over the Tannoy system by the principal and relayed to police.

The message was: "Frau Koma is coming." In German, the word "amoklauf" is used to describe school shootings, and "koma" is "amok" read backwards. This code was agreed upon by the principal as an early warning system in the wake of other school shootings in Germany.

After killing eight girls, one boy and three teachers at the school, Kretschmer fled on foot. He killed a gardener at a clinic opposite the school – understood to be where he was treated for depression last year. He then hijacked a car and later shot dead two people in a car show-room 25 miles away.

More details emerged yesterday from survivors about what happened during Kretschmer's rampage.

Patrick Schneider, 15, who was hit by three bullets, said: "He came in a black combat suit as we were about to start a German lesson. I noticed he had a bulletproof vest on. I thought it was a joke. Then he opened fire.

"He said nothing. Myself and the others near me scrambled all together. We overturned the desks and hid behind them. Suddenly I noticed I was hit; in the back, in the arm and in the cheek. Then he was gone and we barricaded the door."

A portrait of a frustrated, violence-obsessed nobody, who wanted for none of life's material things but had no personality to fit into society, has begun to emerge.

Kretschmer fitted the profile of so many architects of school shootings in recent years: obsessed with violent video games and goth-horror films. He had a collection of 30 air guns that he shot in a special gallery his father built for him in the cellar of the family home.

But his life as an average student with average grades, average looks and below-average social skills sent him into a tailspin of depression over the past year. He was admitted to a clinic for depression in the spring of last year, later moving to an institution nearer his home.

Between April and September he was treated five times for depression.