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Hardly a year goes by in the United States without such a tragedy, but still experts battle to identify potential campus killers in time.
Dr Michael Ewart-Smith writes in What's New Doc
1999
20 April: Littleton, Colorado
In one of the most shocking shootings in American history two high-school seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed twelve students and one teacher at Columbine High School before committing suicide. This memorial for the victims was erected around the graves of three of the people killed.
2005
21 March: Red Lake, Minnesota, USA
Jeff Weise (16) killed his grandfather and companion, then arrived at school where he killed seven others and himself.
8 November, Jacksboro, Tennessee, USA
Kenneth Bartley (15) killed a staff member at Campbell County High School and injured two others.
2006
13 September: Quebec, Montreal, USA
Kimveer Gill (25) opened fire in a cafeteria during lunchtime at Dawson College, killing one
student, wounding 19 and then shooting himself.
27 September: Bailey, Colorado, USA
A man walked into Platte Canyon High School, picked out six girls, sexually assaulted them
and shot a fleeing girl, after which he killed himself.
29 September: Cazenovia, Wisconsin, USA
Eric Hainstock (15) killed his principal at Weston High School after nothing was done about a complaint from him that the other children teased him.
2 October: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
A man shot 11 people, killing five girls, at West Nickel Mines Amish School then committed
suicide. Apparently he had been nursing a grudge against a girl for 20 years. He sent out all the boys before lining up the girls in front of the blackboard.
21 November: Emsdetten, Germany
Sebastian Bosse (18) wounded five people in his former school, Geschwister Scholl School, before setting off smoke bombs. He killed himself during the attack.
2007
3 January: Tacoma, Washington, USA
Douglas Chanthabouly (18) killed a fellow student in the hallway of Henry Foss High School.
16 April: Blacksbury, Virginia, USA
Cho Seung-Hui (23) murdered 32 people and committed suicide. It was said he did a thorough search, moving from class to class.
21 September: Dover, Delaware, USA
Loyer Braden (17) shot two students, killing one, at Delaware State University.
10 October: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Asa Coon (14) went on a shooting spree at SuccessTech Academy, hitting four students
and killing himself, after he was suspended for fighting.
7 November: Tuusula, Finland
Pekka-Eric Auvinen (18) killed eight people and himself after posting a hate video on YouTube hours before he stormed Jokela High School.
12 December: Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Two boys, Suchismith Roy (14) and Jayarama Rao (13), killed a fellow pupil at the Euro International School, shooting him four times.
2008
8 February: Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Latina Williams (23) of the Louisiana Technical College shot and killed two fellow students in a busy classroom then committed suicide.
12 February: Oxnard, California, USA
Brandon McInerey (14) killed a fellow student at the E.O. Green School in what was considered a hate crime.
14 February: Dekalb, Illinois, USA
Steve Kazmierczak (27), a former Northern Illinois University student, killed six people in a lecture hall and wounded 15 others. He had not been taking his prescribed medicine.
18 August: Krugersdorp, South Africa
Morné Harmse (18) killed fellow student Jacques Pretorius with a samurai sword at Nic Diederichs Technical High School and wounded three other people. The court case is currently underway.
21 August: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Jamar Siler (15) shot another student at Central High School, casually walking away from the scene where he was found six blocks from the school.
22 September: Kauhajoki, Finland
Matti Juhani Saari (22) killed ten students at a college and shot himself. The previous day he had posted a violent video on YouTube and was questioned the day before by police.
Dr Michael Ewart-Smith was formerly principal psychiatrist at Sterkfontein Hospital. He is chairman of the South African Society of Psychiatrists task team on psychiatric disability and has a special interest in that field. He is an honorary clinical consultant in the department of psychiatry at the University of the Witwatersrand.
(This is an edited extract of an article first published in What’s New Doc, 2nd issue, March 2009. What’s New Doc is a publication for medical doctors, produced in association with Health24.)
Read more:
Campus killings: how prepared is SA?
Cho Seung-Hui: a tragic case history
Can SA prevent campus killings?
