An 11-year-old boy shot and killed his teacher and wounded six others before turning his guns on himself at a primary school in Torreón, Coahuila, Friday morning.
The shooting occurred at the Colegio Cervantes private school around 8:00am after the student asked his teacher for permission to go to the bathroom. Identified as María Asafat Medina, the teacher went to look for him when he hadn’t returned after 15 minutes.
When she found him, authorities said, the student was holding two guns. He then shot her and went on to shoot another teacher and five students before shooting and killing himself.
Secretariat of Public Security coordinator Adelaido Flores said two of the injured minors are in serious condition.
Coahuila Governor Miguel Ángel Riquelme said the student had apparently told his classmates “Today is the day” when they arrived at school.
Riquelme also blamed a videogame called Natural Selection for influencing the boy to carry out the attack.
“It appears that the boy [was] influenced by a videogame called Natural Selection, he even wore a shirt with the name of the game at the bottom . . . I believe he tried to recreate [the videogame] today,” said Riquelme.
He also said that a security program to check backpacks would be reinforced and become mandatory in Coahuila schools. Administrators at Colegio Cervantes rejected the program in October after parents had petitioned for it not to be implemented.
President López Obrador expressed his condolences for the families of the children and teachers involved in the “terrible, very terrible tragedy.”
He regretted that such an act would happen in Mexico and called on parents to be more attentive to their children and to continue working “for the strengthening of moral and spiritual values.”
“We have to pay attention to the children, to the young people, not turn our backs on them. We need lots of attention in our families with children . . . so these things don’t happen,” he said.
Coahuila Attorney General Maurilio Ochoa said the boy hadn’t shown signs typical of school shooters before the attack.
“They tell me that he had good grades, that he was even going to go to an academic event. He was a stand-out student. He didn’t show signs of depression or suffer from bullying,” Ochoa said.
Politicians also offered their condolences, while some, such as Democratic Revolution Party Senator Miguel Ángel Mancera, called for stricter gun regulations.
“It is essential to ‘de-pistolize Mexico’ through initiatives we continue to promote in the [Senate], we must restrict as much as possible the possibility of possessing or carrying illegal firearms. Our full solidarity with the citizens of Torreón,” he said in a Tweet.
Federal Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo offered the full support of his cabinet in the investigation into the shooting, and the United Nations called for the culture of violence in Mexico to come to an end.
Sources: Milenio (sp), Aristegui Noticias (sp)
