The police secure the crime scene in Wuppertal on Thursday, February 22, 2024
Image: AP
After the attack at a high school in Wuppertal, investigators found a suspected confession letter, the contents of which suggested “that the seventeen-year-old had a mental illness.”
DThe young people injured in the attack by a high school student in Wuppertal are out of danger. The investigators announced this on Friday. The 17-year-old alleged perpetrator is said to have suddenly stabbed himself with a knife in a break room at the Wilhelm-Dörpfeld-Gymnasium in the center of Wuppertal on Thursday morning. He injured four classmates, two of them seriously. The teenager is then said to have stabbed himself in the chest and seriously injured himself. The initial investigation results presented on Friday afternoon suggest that even worse was prevented thanks to the fearless intervention of a teacher and later because of the careful approach of the police.
As public prosecutor Patrick Penders announced in a joint press conference with police operations manager Colin Rinderz, the students were initially among themselves on Thursday morning. A teacher then became aware of loud shouts and rushed over. The suspected student then let the teacher persuade him to put the murder weapon away.
The German-Turkish teenager, who performed well at school but is said to have suffered from psychological problems for a long time, was sitting quietly in the break room under the teacher's supervision when the first emergency services arrived. “However, when he saw the emergency services, he became agitated again and attacked the emergency services and said that he wanted to be shot by the police,” said Detective Director Rinderz. Thanks to the very calm behavior of the police officers, they were able to handcuff the teenager without using weapons. At the school, investigators secured a suspected confession letter. Its content suggests “that the seventeen-year-old has a mental illness,” said public prosecutor Penders. The young person will be “evaluated promptly”.
After the suspect was arrested, the police completely evacuated the high school in order to search the building for possible additional dangerous objects or other people. A police helicopter temporarily circled over the school. Meanwhile, the students were looked after in the rooms of a neighboring savings bank. The suspect's apartment was also searched for evidence. On Friday, the public prosecutor's office applied for an arrest warrant for attempted murder against the seventeen-year-old, who remains in hospital.
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