http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42507856/ns/world_news-europe/
Man with a “machine gun” opens fire in a shopping mall, killing 5 and kills himself with a handgun.
In keeping with European sensibilities, they describe him as wearing camouflage pants, but not his ethnic identity or whether he shouted “Allah Akbar” as he began shooting.
And so it starts…
Let’s see how long it takes before we have a name, a picture or an indication of national origin or the standard “We don’t have any reason to believe this was a terrorist act”…
Statement from the mayor (edited out by AP) – “…whose identity we cannot reveal,…”
AP Story at 9:41 ET – mayor says shooter had “long blond hair”
New details – killer described as a Dutchman from Alpen with a criminal record
http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2011/04/dutch-terror-seven-dead-after-mall-shooting-explosives-discovered-at-other-shopping-centers/
That odd report names the killer as “Tristan the learned” and that he killed his mother – and explosives were found at several malls… And a shooting at a police buildingvin Rotterdam… Some suggestion the city has a problem with criminal gangs shooting each other
The shooter’s last name is Van Der Vlis per a Dutch web site. He’s 24 years old, shot his parents who have a store in the mall, and there may be a girlfriend angle.
Did Holland provide any troops to Afghanistan?
Name is Tristan van Der Vlis per a Norway news site. He shot jus mother at work and police found a note in his car saying he had planted bombs is several shopping center, which the police doubt but are investigating
Relatives being shot may be wrong. His family lived right next to the mall. He had not served in the military, but did belong to a shooting club. Mom found a suicide note
Still not IDed in any Englush language news service…
http://twitpic.com/4iwmy9
Twitter people are circulating this picture of Tristan van der Vlis. The person in the picture has short brown hair, not long blond hair – of course, it could be an old picture or maybe not him at all.
His suicide note was “spiritual in nature” and had some digital content.
Still no details about the “automatic” weapon. Media people and those not familiar with guns often use “automatic” to describe any gun that can fire quickly.
A lot of Dutch people are using this as a vehicle to point to the US as the place that inspires gun violence – at least one voice points out with the differences in size, the disparity is not that great
He accidentally shot himself in the leg with an air rifle as a teenager… About 5 years ago, he was hospitalized for 10 days for suicidal issues… He was 24, unemployed and living with his father
Sounds quite a bit like Mr Loughner out in Arizona.
Not to put too fine of a point on it, but having millions of unemployed angry young men not married and not connected with a woman and being a father lays the foundation for this type of behavior. In the “good old days”, the solution was to have a great big war and have them all die defending their country, mom and apple pie or going on a Crusade to the Middle East to take back Jerusalem for Jesus.