Hyvinkaa shooting: Finland gunman in deadly rampage

[Gerald]

A gunman fired from the rooftop of a house in a southern Finnish town, killing two people and injuring seven others, the authorities have said.

Police arrested an 18-year-old man suspected of the shootings in Hyvinkaa, 50km (30 miles) north of Helsinki.

An man and a woman, both 18 years old, were killed in the incident. A police officer was among the wounded.

Some of the injured were said to be in a serious condition and have been taken to Helsinki for emergency treatment.

Local media reported that a man in combat fatigues opened fire on crowds in the early hours.MTV3 channel said the man used a rifle and fled shortly after the incident.

Eyewitnesses spoke of panic as they were shut inside bars and clubs for hours while police searched the area.

Detective Chief Inspector Markku Tuominen said the suspect was arrested several hours later and offered no resistance.

"The man was found with two weapons... including a hunting rifle," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18217282

Note: 26 May 2012 Last updated at 10:00 GMT

[antikristuseke]

Various shootings in Finland are occurring with alarming regularity, one might thing they are practicing to invade russia...

[Hottentot]

Just posted this in the comment thread, so might as well copy it over here too:

Some loony snapped over here and started shooting people with two guns. Reason? Oh, you know, no particular, just go shooting random people in the middle of the night when they just happen to be at wrong place at a wrong time. Why, is there any other way to go? Two dead and seven injured. One of the latter being a graduating police officer doing her obligatory field training.

And now the usual show starts again. As soon as people woke up, they started blaming the police for being inefficient. For Christ's sake, the first patrol was there literally in a minute and as soon as they got out of the vehicle, one of them got wounded! What should they have done? Shot the guy, armed with a rifle and a fair distance away, dead with their pistols? They caught him in the morning, something like 6 hours after the incident. And that's inefficient?

And the media is all over the place again.

Yeah, a good Saturday to you too, Finland.

[Schroeder]

Can it be that the amount of shootings in Finland is pretty high for such a small population?

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Can it be that the amount of shootings in Finland is pretty high for such a small population?

Amount of guns, definitely. Amount of shootings? I'm not so sure about that.

I don't have statistics, but from gut feeling I'd say we have fairly few gun related crimes, at least knowing the fact that the guns are available. Heck, even I'd know where to get one, and I don't even know what I would need it for. But our violent crimes don't often involve guns: we go stabbing each other or something (usually while drunk), but we don't shoot each other. Burglars don't come knocking with guns. Heck, even the people sentenced for murders seem to do it more often with some other ways than guns. Guns, at least as far as I'm concerned, relate more to gang violence or some other organized crime, which is not common but it exists.

But when we, as in "normal" people, go shooting, it happens like this. A guy takes a gun and starts shooting. Maybe he (let's face it, it's almost certainly a "he") has some sort of plan like the school shooters do, but it might as well be a random rampage like this. And that gets noticed by the international media as well, which on the other hand creates an idea of Finland having lots of shootings. Given that the tools for such are widely available and that alcohol is often involved in our violence, I'm actually surprised it doesn't happen more often.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

Just posted this in the comment thread, so might as well copy it over here too:

Some loony snapped over here and started shooting people with two guns. Reason? Oh, you know, no particular, just go shooting random people in the middle of the night when they just happen to be at wrong place at a wrong time. Why, is there any other way to go? Two dead and seven injured. One of the latter being a graduating police officer doing her obligatory field training.

And now the usual show starts again. As soon as people woke up, they started blaming the police for being inefficient. For Christ's sake, the first patrol was there literally in a minute and as soon as they got out of the vehicle, one of them got wounded! What should they have done? Shot the guy, armed with a rifle and a fair distance away, dead with their pistols? They caught him in the morning, something like 6 hours after the incident. And that's inefficient?

And the media is all over the place again.

Yeah, a good Saturday to you too, Finland.

Sorry to hear about this, a tragedy in any country. Its unfortunate people have to assign blame on everyone but the shooter.

The way I see it you have two options meet it with equal or a greater force and end this. Or you could be like the Norwegians and find what songs he doesn't like and sing them out loud. That will show'em whos boss.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

Just posted this in the comment thread, so might as well copy it over here too:

Some loony snapped over here and started shooting people with two guns. Reason? Oh, you know, no particular, just go shooting random people in the middle of the night when they just happen to be at wrong place at a wrong time. Why, is there any other way to go? Two dead and seven injured. One of the latter being a graduating police officer doing her obligatory field training.

And now the usual show starts again. As soon as people woke up, they started blaming the police for being inefficient. For Christ's sake, the first patrol was there literally in a minute and as soon as they got out of the vehicle, one of them got wounded! What should they have done? Shot the guy, armed with a rifle and a fair distance away, dead with their pistols? They caught him in the morning, something like 6 hours after the incident. And that's inefficient?

And the media is all over the place again.

Yeah, a good Saturday to you too, Finland.

That's the media for you...don't you just love them

[Spoon 11th]

Originally Posted by antikristuseke

Various shootings in Finland are occurring with alarming regularity, one might thing they are practicing to invade russia...

Meh. Few school shootings and now this. Overall gun crime victims average 25 persons per year (population 5,4 million). Victims belong to criminal gangs or some drunkard posse killing each other. Last shooting somewhat similar to this happened in 1994. It's super extremely rare to get killed in Finland by someone you've never met before the incident.

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Can it be that the amount of shootings in Finland is pretty high for such a small population?

Homicides with firearms is twice as common in Germany. (Percentage of homicides with firearms.)

New info: Shooter knew at least one of the victims and was his facebook friend. They had spent the evening together and argued about something and then the shooter went home to grab the three guns.