On Tuesday morning, a horrific scene played out at a school in Vienna, Austria. A former student known as Arthur A opened fire in that school just days ago, tragically killing 10 people, including nine pupils and a school receptionist. The 21-year-old had lived in the neighborhood for five years. He was famously shy, keeping few friends or acquaintances and having little to no visible online footprint. According to law enforcement, Arthur A had initially intended to explode a homemade explosive device at the location. Despite extraordinary planning, he abandoned these plans at the last second during the uprising.
The horrific shooting played out over a gruesome 17 minutes. In the course of that incident, Arthur A used his legally owned shotgun and Glock pistol to carry out the rampage. The victims were six female and three male Austrian citizens, aged 14–17 years. Besides that, there was a single Polish citizen among them. In the aftermath of the shooting, Arthur A killed himself on the school premises.
Witnesses recounted the pandemonium that ensued when rounds started to fire. One individual recounted, “Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of bullets. At first, I thought it was fireworks or something because anything else was out of the question. Then, I thought, maybe it’s an attack. I decided to run.” Another witness detailed their harrowing experience: “I went out and across the corridor, and down the stairs and that’s when I saw the attacker very briefly, with his weapon, trying to shoot through the lock of a classroom door – five metres away from me. I was scared. I just kept running downstairs.”
Just before the attack, Arthur A filmed a goodbye message to his mother. This caused her to call in the police 24 minutes afterward. In the aftermath of the tragedy, authorities were horrified to discover. In the flat where Arthur A lived with his mother, they found a homemade pipe bomb. The idea of having someone with such malignant intentions living among them was very disturbing to residents. One neighbor remarked, “It was eerie. So they quietly snuck up on the house, about 15 or 20 officers in full SWAT regalia. Nothing, literally nothing happens in this neighbourhood. It’s hard to accept that someone with such clear murderous intent and a pipe bomb was living directly across from us. This startling truth is difficult to comprehend.
His response would have alarmed anyone who knew Arthur A. He was labeled a recluse with only one close friend. Chances are you’d see him either biking or walking to class, wearing headphones, dark clothes and a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. “He had lived here for five years, but was very reserved,” said a local source.
The tragedy has led to national debates over the need for increased school security in Austria. A local student expressed concern over future safety measures: “They’re going to have to rethink the security of schools, like introducing metal detectors, because no one is going to want to go to school after this.”
The effects of this tragic event continue to be severely experienced throughout the community. Natalia Chalakova, a fellow student, noted, “No one could stop talking about it when we met at school this morning for our exams, and no one could really concentrate.” The abrupt shift from their normal daily routines to this unspeakable tragedy has left many community members in a state of shock, anger, and confusion. The most angry of any sort that typically occurs here is arguments on the playground with children arguing over their playthings. Having a mass murderer in our midst is a very real and very American story. It’s not one that belongs to Austria, she continued.