Rooftop gunman kills 2
May 27, 2012, Sunday
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A GUNMAN opened fire from a rooftop in a Finnish town center in the early hours of yesterday, killing two people and wounding several others, police said.
An 18-year-old man wearing camouflage clothing was arrested after the shooting in Hyvinkaa, a small town 56 kilometers north of the capital Helsinki.
The motive for the shooting was unclear.
It followed a series of shooting sprees in Finland in recent years.
The suspect had no criminal background and police said he likely acted alone.
Police could not comment on whether he knew his victims. Both of the dead, a male and a female, were 18 years old. Seven others were wounded. One, a policewoman, was in critical condition yesterday.
Media reports said some victims, including one of the dead, were members of a Finnish baseball team, Hyvinkaan Tahko, which had won a game on Friday.
The police's regional chief inspector, Timo Leppala, said the shootings were first reported before 2am. The suspect fled but was detained a few hours later, and police said they found two rifles afterwards.
Finland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world and a series of mass shootings prompted the government to toughen gun laws last June. The suspect in yesterday's case did not have a license, police said.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old student killed eight people at a school near Helsinki before turning the weapon on himself. The following September, a 22-year-old killed 10 people in the town of Kauhajoki before shooting himself.
In December 2009, a man shot four people dead in a mall in Espoo after stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death. The man later killed himself.
An 18-year-old man wearing camouflage clothing was arrested after the shooting in Hyvinkaa, a small town 56 kilometers north of the capital Helsinki.
The motive for the shooting was unclear.
It followed a series of shooting sprees in Finland in recent years.
The suspect had no criminal background and police said he likely acted alone.
Police could not comment on whether he knew his victims. Both of the dead, a male and a female, were 18 years old. Seven others were wounded. One, a policewoman, was in critical condition yesterday.
Media reports said some victims, including one of the dead, were members of a Finnish baseball team, Hyvinkaan Tahko, which had won a game on Friday.
The police's regional chief inspector, Timo Leppala, said the shootings were first reported before 2am. The suspect fled but was detained a few hours later, and police said they found two rifles afterwards.
Finland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world and a series of mass shootings prompted the government to toughen gun laws last June. The suspect in yesterday's case did not have a license, police said.
In November 2007, an 18-year-old student killed eight people at a school near Helsinki before turning the weapon on himself. The following September, a 22-year-old killed 10 people in the town of Kauhajoki before shooting himself.
In December 2009, a man shot four people dead in a mall in Espoo after stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death. The man later killed himself.
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