A German teenager who shot dead 15 people announced his in an Internet chatroom before his rampage that he had weapons which he planned to use, an official said Thursday. Heribert Rech, interior minister of the state where the shooting took place, gave details of the Internet conversation at 2:45 A.M. on Wednesday, seven hours before he started the killing spree. “I have weapons here and tomorrow morning I will go to my old school.” “You will hear about me tomorrow. Make note of the name of the place: Winnenden,” 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer said. Rech said that the chat was with 16-year-old Bernd from Bavaria. The boy showed the chat to his father after he heard about Wednesday's massacre, and the father then contacted police. “Shit, Bernd. I have had enough, I have had enough of this crummy life ... Always the same. People are laughing at me, no one recognizes my potential,” Rech cited the entry as saying. “I mean it seriously, Bernd.” Kretschmer entered his old school in Winnenden at around 9:30 A.M., armed with a handgun taken from his father's bedroom and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. He shot dead eight girls, one boy and three female teachers. He fled and randomly shot dead three bystanders. Three hours later Kretschmer was dead after a manhunt ended in a shootout in a shopping centre car park 30 kilometers away. Rech told a news conference that the gunman had recently stopped receiving psychiatric treatment. The composed school principal was able to warn teachers with a pre-arranged code over the public address system when a gunman burst into the school, likely preventing the teenager from killing any more than the 12 students and teachers slain there, media reports said Thursday. After the former student, identified by police as 17-year-old Tim K., entered the school in Winnenden on Wednesday morning and opened fire, the principal put the emergency plan in effect, quickly broadcasting a coded message to teachers: “Frau Koma is coming,” students said. “Then our teacher closed the door and said we should close the windows and sit on the floor,” a student, identified only as Kim S., told ZDF television. In German the word “amoklauf” is used to describe school shootings, and “koma” is the reverse of the word “amok.” Germany's Bild newspaper reported the coded alert was worked out by German educators after a deadly school shooting in Erfurt in 2002 as a way to warn teachers.
