Pekka Erik Auvinen, Finnish mass murderer. Yokela massacre
Autumn is becoming darker and sadder, more silent. Almost all the leaves on the trees had fallen, creating a pale carpet. People have always considered this a very beautiful time, but everything is different. The leaves are not variegated, red or yellow, they are gray, gray like something very empty, faceless, lost. There was no warmth at all, even the sun stopped showing up in rainy Finland, there was only barely perceptible frost, which, with prolonged exposure, chilled to the bones. Snow fell a couple of times, but melted almost immediately, letting them know that the beginning of a long and cold winter was approaching. What does snow look like? For beautiful grains? Some pretty sight? People invented this nonsense for themselves; they always tried to find something good in bad things, and this was their mistake. Winter is getting closer and closer. The clouds are solid and gray, there is a foggy haze in the air, and in the morning the puddles are covered with crusts of ice. By the end of the month, the ponds freeze, covering them with completely flat ice.
Finland, Tuusula, city cemetery. A small, unattractive grave. That is... A small monument with an image of deer at a watering hole, an inconspicuous inscription, years of life, and... A beautiful font telling the story of the deceased: “Pekka-Erik Auvinen.” This name alone brings tears to my eyes. So many memories, pain, despair, anger. How many hearts have you destroyed, Pekka-Erik? How many people hated you? Thousands? Perhaps millions? You think it's natural selection, people think murder is a tragedy. And only one heart will forever beat for you, no matter what.
A girl sits on the cold and wet ground with a bouquet of red roses. She sits and looks, peers at the inscription on the monument. The tears have long since dried up, she no longer mourns him, the strength is gone. Now she can only look and watch, just think.
- Hello, Eric, how are you? - the voice trembles, the chest heaves from tearless hysterics, the hand smoothly strokes the edge of the monument. It's just an insensitive piece of stone, but now it seems so close and dear, the only thing left of Pekka-Erik and Avery will always have. - I miss you, Eric. I recently went to see your mom, she feels good, takes her medication, she even smiled, huh... How are you doing, Eric?
"Past. Our past."
Two people. Born on the same day, in the same year, in the same seconds, minutes, hours. Fate, as it seemed to the neighboring parents, who were stunned by such coincidences. The boy was named Pekka-Erik, in honor of Pekka Järbäck Järvinen and Eric Clapton, rock singers. The father of the family worked two jobs - a musician and a railway worker, the mother was a former municipal deputy. The boy was quiet and exemplary in his family and school, his grades were above average, he had a clean and clear mind. But he considered himself completely different. Weapon of natural selection, arbiter of destinies, god, rebel. The girl was named Avery. The name did not carry any hidden meaning or any dedication to a famous person; my mother liked this name. The family lived in prosperity next door to the Auvinens, and everyone was on friendly terms with each other. Everything was always fine.
Already at the age of ten, Eric began to show his thoughts about natural selection and survival, the uselessness of the human race. How could a child at that age be aware of anything? Moreover, something like that? It turns out he could. But the guys still felt comfortable with each other. Avery loved Pekka more than anything else in all the years they knew her, but she did not notice the same about Eric. Maybe a strong attachment, but not love, he’s just used to it. He got used to having her in his life, got used to her always being there.
Hey Eves, do you think it would be cool to wipe out all of humanity and be left with just you and me at the top of the food chain? - Auvinen asked one day when sixteen-year-old teenagers were walking around Tuusula at night, drinking soda. This happened often. Quiet walks, soda, empty conversations about nothing. However, such a point-blank question caused Avery to drop the metal can, spilling his drink.
I don’t know... - the girl honestly admitted, looking down at the asphalt. Eric looked into her eyes, waiting for a reaction. If only she knew then how much her words would affect the young man. - Do you want it that bad? Why didn't people please you, Eric?
Damn, Eves, you amaze me. I told you many times! Humanity is overrated, people are just pathetic bastards who don't deserve to live. Should I explain it to you again? - he laughed, which made my soul feel somehow gloomy and deserted, quiet.
I, too, am a pathetic bastard, I also have no right to live, Eric? - the girl asked in a whisper with tears in her eyes, trying to find answers. It was no longer Pekka-Erik Auvinen, not that bright boy from childhood, not that time.
Avery, calm down now. We are made for each other, you know? I don’t know, I don’t want to say that this is love, I just feel that you are my person, although this makes me like people. It's fate, Avery. - then his voice sounded convincing, so sincere, it was the truth. Not what the girl wanted to hear, but hearing it from him was incredible.
Go away, you stupid bitch! I said don't come near me, you trash! Who asked you to interfere?! Pekka shouted as he violently pushed Avery into the wall. A burst of anger, anger. But the girl didn’t do anything... The guy was pinned in a corner by local school hooligans, mocking him and pouring water from the cleaners’ basins on him. And he endured, simply endured and accumulated rage and hatred within himself, which he was ready to throw out on all people in the Universe. Avery intervened, spraying pepper liquid at the offenders, after which they rushed off in an unknown direction, cursing Eric and Avery. The guy was angry. He was always furious after such attacks from a girl. He was considered even more of a loser, a failure, unable to stand up for himself. Pekka always took out his anger on his friend, but he never accepted force, limiting himself to only pushing and a bunch of insults. At such moments, he did not understand that he could lose her, but she understood. That's why I didn't back down.
After such incidents, the guy always called first in the evening, apologized and explained his behavior as excessive anger. He always spoke sincerely. At least he didn't lie to Avery.
Oddities on a larger scale began to happen to the young man already in 2007, when he became a member of the Helsinki Shooting Club. He was proficient with all types of firearms and always hit the target. He often joked with Eves alone, wishing they were human heads. This scared the girl. It was scary and alarming. Something big was coming this year, something kept the girl awake at night, worried her, and this something was a huge tragedy for everyone in the future.
Hey, Eves, want to shoot with me sometime? - Eric often suggested to the girl.
You know, Eric, the recoil of firearms is too strong, it will simply crush my wrists. - she joked, trying not to raise the topic of shooting, to which Pekka smiled mysteriously, nodding his head.
I hope you and I shoot a couple hundred people one day.
The last straw of the girl’s patience was the discovery of Pekka-Eric’s activities on the Internet. The search results were terrible. Murders, a manifesto of a guy who contained discussions about the meaning of humanity, its uselessness and how great it would be to get rid of everyone, that he was not like everyone else. Eric wasn't even afraid to die. He consciously wrote that he was ready to fight for his interests and elections himself, to the end, until his death.
The people around him began to notice the guy’s strange inclinations. The kids at school complained to the social worker about Auvinen’s threats; he threatened them with violence, execution. The social worker talked with Avery for a very long time, trying to get her to talk the young man out of these thoughts, but Avery refused. She didn't want to do something according to someone else's orders. She didn't want to cut off communication with Pekka. She tried to just be on the same page with him as she had been all these years, but he had something to hide.
At the end of October, the young man suddenly began to devote a lot of time to Avery. He constantly invited her to practice shooting, he simply invited her to go for a walk, he treated the girl very nicely, leaving her various gifts. Pleasant little things in the form of new books, goodies, and Pekka-Erik’s personal belongings have already become a habit. He often gave her some pieces of himself, be it a T-shirt or a player, and the girl could not find an explanation for this, but she thought that he had finally warmed up to her.
On the night of November 7, around 03:42, the girl was awakened by a phone call from a young man. She was very scared, thought that something had happened, but she only heard a quiet phrase:
I love you, Evs, I'm sorry for everything.
Eric, what happened? - the girl asked in shock, trying to rethink the words the guy said.
I fucking love you. - the interlocutor repeated persistently in a higher tone. - I'm like all those bastards, Eves. I know how to feel, I feel a craving for you, I know it. This is fucking bothering me. You always loved me, always stood up for me, although I didn’t want it, I screamed and pushed you, but you continued to follow me. Human spawn like the others would have given up long ago, but you loved me for everything, for all my oddities, and I decided to be with you because you are not like a human.
These words made the girl’s world turn upside down. Confession from Eric himself! She cried into the phone, sobbing nervously, to which the guy on the other end of the line cursed quietly and asked her not to cry. The two of them talked almost all night about all sorts of trifles, sweet things. He seemed so sincere to her at those moments. But was it true?
Listen, Eves, I have to go... See you at school, don't wait for me in the morning, I'll be late. - the guy said sharply, hanging up. Avery didn’t pay any attention to it then and calmly went to bed, but in vain. If only she knew what would happen in a few hours. If only she knew that these were the last hours of her soul mate's life. It was late.
Hell on earth. Horror, screams, panic of students, sounds of sirens and shots, pauses between reloading weapons, shots again. Around eleven in the morning, random shots were heard at the school. At first, no one understood what was going on, they just sat there and were perplexed, until the director over the loudspeaker ordered everyone to barricade the doors. At this time, Avery was in the toilet and was horrified. There were no locks, no cabins, and the instinct of self-preservation told me to run without looking back and find Pekka. Stop... Slow realization crept into my head. Shooting. Eric loved to shoot and threatened to shoot him. Shot. He was interested in weapons and was a member of a shooting club. Shot. He said not to wait for him at the house, he said that he would be late. Her legs immediately gave way and she fell somewhere near the sinks, breaking one and scratching herself with the fragments. Tears and frantic screams escaped from the girl. She screamed the name of her best friend, called him, but he did not come. The only sounds that could be heard were gunshots and screams. The shooter screams. Avery had already lost her voice and simply ran out of the restroom, trying to find Eric.
And the sounds of shooting had already died down, the girl lost track of time, but clearly heard a dull shot from the floor above, where the doctors were already running. My heart suddenly pounded very strongly, my breath was taken away. A feeling of something terrible came over the girl. She rushed to the men's room at all pores, her legs seemed to lead her, she knew that He was there. Running inside, Avery stopped abruptly, her gaze automatically falling on the body of Eric, who was lying like a dead weight on the tile, a fresh pool of blood was slowly spreading at his head, and a .22-caliber pistol lay next to him.
My heart sank, my mind did not want to think and realize what I was seeing. No, it's not Pekka-Erik Auvinen, no, it's not him, damn it! The girl, sobbing, threw herself on the shooter's chest, hugging his neck.
Eric! Open your eyes! Please don't leave like this! I love you Eric! - Avery was hysterical and sobbing, not noticing how she was getting all dirty in the blood of her lover, while the doctors were putting them both on a stretcher, since no one could unhook the poor fellow from the shooter. She drove with him to the hospital the whole way, holding his hand, at one moment feeling a strong squeeze of Pekka’s hand.
All day the doctors fought for the shooter’s life, all day Avery sat next to him and held his hand, not wanting to let go. She just hoped that he would survive. I just hoped. Scenes from childhood, youth, all the time spent together began to float past her eyes, memories immediately overwhelmed the girl, Auvinen’s voice stood in her head and did not stop for a minute.
23:45. Fatal time. Doctors recorded death without regaining consciousness. The girl's whole world collapsed in one second. All the happiness built with this person fell into pieces. She had lost more than just a gunslinger or an acquaintance, she had lost her reason for existence, her reason to breathe. They had long ago pulled her away from her and helped her, tried to calm her down, but Avery only looked with glassy eyes at Pekka’s body. Lifeless body.
Then nothing mattered anymore. The girl thought a lot, she reproached herself for not being able to do anything, not doing anything. She knew he wasn't kidding about the shooting and his views on humanity, but she took it for granted and just let it slide. She was ready to die next to him, but it was too late. It was all over a long time ago. The funeral took place quietly, modestly, only with two families. Pekka's mother handed Avery the envelope, which was securely sealed and was slightly bulging, indicating that it was more than just a piece of paper. There was only one thing written on the envelope: “Open in a year of my revolution.” Then Avery kept this letter and remembered it for a long time. The police spent a long time tormenting the two families, devastated by grief, for a long time conducting an investigation into the relationship between Avery and Pekka-Eric, achieving nothing, only additional tears and grief. The girl was still very often in Eric’s room, re-reading his books, lying on his bed, sitting at his chair. She tried to fill the hole left by the young man in her heart. But it settled deep, so it will sit there forever.
Tuusula cemetery, present day.
The girl had been sitting for a couple of hours at the grave of her man, simply talking to the tombstone, discussing the course of her life after the tragedy. And then she remembered the very letter Eric left for her. She always wore it as if she didn't know when the time would come, but the time had come. Trembling hands opened the envelope, taking out a sheet of paper that had turned yellow from a short period of time.
“Dear Avery, my beloved Eves.
I hope that mom gave you this letter if she found it herself, and not the cops beat her to it. If you are still reading this, I’m glad, but most likely you’re already dead. I don’t know.
how do you feel about this, I think you will hate me. For all this pain, for all this suffering that I brought to you and will deliver to you on November 7th. At first I wanted to see you next to me on this fateful day for the whole world. We would administer our justice together, Evs! But no. You were not someone capable of murder, and I know it, I always knew it. But don’t think that I will judge you for this, on the contrary. I always knew that you were only on my side, and I was always surprised by your courage and recklessness, but I am grateful to you.
Grateful and that's it. You believed in me, restrained the impulses of my anger towards these bastards,
didn’t abandon me like those bastards! I love you, Avery. I know that after my death you will no longer be happy, since you will be alone, but know: I will always watch over you. It doesn’t matter how, from heaven or hell, I will be there, I will hear and see you. You will always be mine, my baby Avery.
Forever in your heart
Pekka-Erik Auvinen."
After finishing reading, Avery smiled sadly at such warm words, she felt Eric's thoughts when writing this letter, his feelings and state. Avery didn't feel angry or sad, she felt gratitude towards Pekka. Just for everything. He was with her, he loved her, even if he abandoned her like that in the end. They both knew who they really were.
The hand reached out to the envelope, where something else lay. There were several photographs of them together, drawings from Eric, but the most mesmerizing one was a silver pendant on a chain. It was a voluminous square with the engraving “Pekka-Erik Auvinen and Avery Paul, 1989 - forever together.
From that moment on, a smile bloomed on the girl’s face, and tears slowly dripped down her cheeks. She kissed the letter tenderly and stroked the tombstone.
Thanks Eric.
Notes:
That's all. I wrote everything down very poorly, but I tried. Again, I will be very glad to receive criticism (to the point) and a public beta.
(1989-06-04 )Pekka-Erik Auvinen(Finnish: Pekka Eric Auvinen; June 4 Tuusula - November 7 Tuusula) is a Finnish mass murderer who massacred his school on November 7, 2007, after which he committed suicide.
Biography
Erik was born on June 4, 1989 in the small town of Tuusula, Finland. They named it in honor of Pekka Järbäck Järvinen and Eric Clapton, rock singers. His father worked two jobs - a musician and a railway worker, his mother was a former municipal deputy. Eric also had a younger brother. On various websites, Pekka called himself an “instrument of natural selection” and considered himself superior to others. Pekka did well at school. But there he was remembered as quiet and shy. Police know that Auvinnen was often bullied at school, but he himself also often humiliated elementary school students. Pekka also hated gays and single parents, as well as couples in love. It is known that a year before the tragedy, Pekka took antidepressants, which may have influenced the massacre he committed.
Love on the Internet
About 6 months before the shooting, Pekka Erik Auvinen met a girl on a dating site and virtual love ultimately ended unhappily when that girl exchanged him for another and left for another site just a week before the shooting. But that love, according to his relatives, made him happy: he openly posted video confessions on YouTube.
Plan and purchase of a pistol
Police determined that Pekka had been developing the shooting plan since March 2007. He gave the name to the murder "Central Strike". Eric purchased the pistol nineteen days before the crime he committed - he had the right to purchase weapons, since he was a member of the Helsinki Hunting Club and had not been convicted. With the help of the club chairman, on October 19, 2007, Eric purchased a .22 caliber Sig Sauer Mosquito, as well as about two hundred rounds of ammunition. Eric himself wanted to buy a 9 mm Beretta, but the police refused to issue him a license for this weapon because he was under 21 years old.
Manifest on the Internet and computer contents
The day before the shooting, Eric posted a homemade film on YouTube called “Jokela school shooting - 11/7/2007” (now deleted), where he warned about the attack on the school. His film contained photographs of the school itself, Eric himself with a weapon, his training in shooting, as well as excerpts from amateur videos of Harris and Klebold with the KMFDM song "Stray Bullet". On November 2, 2007, Eric posted a video of himself practicing shooting a pistol in the forest. Also in his “interests” on some sites, he wrote that he wants to leave a noticeable mark on the world and in general he is interested in the idea of revolution, hatred of humanity, death, mass murder, natural selection. In descriptions, Eric often wrote the following phrase: “I am ready to fight and die for my cause...”. Eric was a fan of the computer game Battlefield 2. Police discovered the video half an hour before the shooting but took no action. 4 hours after the end of the shooting, the video was removed from the site. A large number of files were also found on the shooter’s computer - about 30 photographs of himself and 21 text files in English and Finnish. He also wrote in one of them that he came up with everything alone and that no one should blame others for what they had done. His suicide note began with the words “By the time you read this I will probably be dead.” A farewell video in English was also found on the computer, but for some reason Eric did not post it on YouTube.
Shooting
On November 7, 2007 at 11.40 am Erik Auvinen walked into his lyceum. With him he carried a 22-caliber pistol and fifteen ten-round magazines. Auvinen opened fire on the students standing on the first floor. Having killed and wounded several people, he headed to the second floor, where he entered one of the classrooms and shot the people there, then he shot the principal and the school nurse, as well as several students in the school corridor. He walked along the corridors for some time and called on the students to destroy the school. After some negotiations with police, Auvinen headed to the men's restroom, where he shot himself in the head at about 12:24 p.m. At 1:53 p.m. he was found in a toilet in critical condition and unconscious. At 22.45 Eric died in the hospital. As a result of the shooting, 9 people were killed, including the attacker, and 12 more were injured. In total, Eric fired 106 shots.
Unfortunately, in modern society, obsessive, mentally ill people are increasingly appearing who, in an attempt to attract attention, commit radically illegal acts. As a result, innocent people suffer. For example, his followers considered themselves those who have the right to carry out lynching of people, while rendering only one verdict - the death penalty.
Among the above-mentioned “arbiters of destinies,” one can certainly include a young man from Finland, who committed outrageous and unprecedented murders in a school building located in the town of Jokela in the Tuusula municipal district. Pekka Erik Auvinen opened fire indiscriminately in his home lyceum, resulting in the deaths of several students, the director of the educational institution and a nurse. Why did a seemingly normal teenager, characterized exclusively on the positive side, decide to commit a brutal murder? And what is generally known about this emergency that happened in a quiet provincial town in Finland? Let's look at these questions in more detail.
Difficult childhood
The reasons for the illegal acts that killers possessed by delusions of grandeur ultimately “dare” to do should be sought in the period of life when they were children. And Pekka Erik Auvinen did not commit a crime out of nowhere either. Moreover, the young man prepared for it in advance...
Pekka Erik Auvinen was a native of the small town of Tuusula (Finland). He was born on June 4, 1989. The parents of the future killer were law-abiding citizens: the mother worked in the mayor’s office, the father worked on the railroad, so it would be more logical to exclude the “genetic” factor. But the “psychological” cannot be put aside.
Pekka Erik Auvinen started having problems while still at school. In his youth, he became an object of ridicule from his peers, and in order to restore peace of mind, the future killer often took out his anger on younger children. Over time, Eric came to hate single parents, homosexuals, and those in love. However, he did not show open dissatisfaction with the above categories; on the contrary, he was a calm and peace-loving teenager, seriously interested in philosophy and history. No one could have imagined that this model teenager could turn into a Finnish mass murderer. No signs of trouble. And Eric's parents at first did not believe that their son had committed a massacre at school.
Factors that could potentially lead to a crime
And yet the question remains open: “Why did an eighteen-year-old boy commit a high-profile crime in his native school?” According to investigators, in 2006, in order to get rid of depression, the young man began taking psychotropic drugs, which could hypothetically provoke a desire to kill.
In addition to this, Eric broke up with his girlfriend (he met her on a dating site). It is possible that the breakup of the relationship further aggravated the mental problems.
Preparatory actions
As has already been emphasized, the young man thought through the crime in advance, which he odiously called: “Central strike.” The police were able to find out that he periodically visited the local “Hunting Club”, of which he was a member. As a result, he had the privilege of purchasing firearms. Naturally, the young man took advantage of it. The “Hunting Club,” represented by its chairman, helped Eric acquire his own 22-caliber pistol, which, who would have thought, would become a murder weapon. We are talking about the Sig Sauer Mosquito model. But it is known that the young man wanted to opt for another model - “Birreta”. However, Eric was unable to buy it because he was under 21 years old.
Manifesto
Before committing the Jokela massacre, a young man under the pseudonym Eric von Auffoin published an authored document on the Internet called “The Manifesto of Natural Selector.”
On its pages, Eric explained his own perception of the world. In particular, he states that the existing mechanism of “natural selection” is greatly unbalanced: intellectually “close-minded” individuals began to be born much less often than sensible individuals. And to restore justice, he - Pekka Erik Auvinen, is ready to rid the world of idiots and idiots. Moreover, the young man considers the murder of such people to be completely justified. But in his thoughts the young man goes even further: he does not see people at all who deserve to live on planet Earth today. But for the sake of exclusion, Eric is ready to leave alive those who are capable of thinking, and such are only 3% of the population. Most people do not have this quality, they can be easily manipulated, so they must die.
In a separate appendix, the young man listed those phenomena that he categorically does not accept, namely: ideology, religion, media, democracy, commercial TV, censorship, political figures.
Warning
Shortly before the crime, Eric posted an original film called Jokela school shooting on the popular YouTube service. In this way he predicted a massacre at the school.
The tragedy happened in the fall
In the morning of November 7, 2007, Pekka Erik was already on the territory of his native lyceum. On this day, a massacre occurred at the school. The young man had the most serious intentions. He took the Mosquito with him in advance. First he opened fire on the students on the first floor. In panic, the children tried to jump out of the windows to escape. But not everyone succeeded. Eric then moved to the second floor, where he continued shooting at people. Entering one of the offices, he one by one pointed the gun at the director of the lyceum, the nurse and the students. They failed to survive. Then he walked along the corridor of the educational institution and called on his peers to destroy the school. Soon the police arrived at the scene.
Law enforcement officers acted as carefully as possible to avoid additional casualties. They did not use force and tried to convince the young man to surrender through negotiations.
The final
Realizing that it was useless to resist, Eric proceeded to the toilet room, where he attempted to commit suicide. The young man shot himself in the head. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the police found the killer, who, although bleeding, was still alive. An ambulance immediately took Eric to the clinic, and a few hours later he died.
The tragedy caused a serious public outcry in Finland. Activists demanded that the country's authorities limit the issuance of firearms to certain categories of citizens.
And the schoolchildren and teachers who suffered at the hands of the young man were forced to undergo a long course of psychological rehabilitation. As a result of the emergency, 9 people were killed and 12 injured.
Afterword
This is the kind of PR that Pekka Erik Auvinen provided for himself, who was obsessed with the ideas of hatred of humanity, mass murder, revolution and natural selection. The assessment of his actions is, of course, unambiguous. Society and government must react harshly to those who try to put themselves above others and carry out lynchings over innocent people.
Finnish society is in shock. The crime, familiar only from reports from America, shocked the entire country. An 18-year-old high school student from the village of Jokela came to the school with a gun and killed eight people before committing suicide. In the history of Finland, there had only been one similar case before, when in 1989 a 14-year-old schoolboy from the seaside town of Rauma shot and killed two students.
The incident, dubbed the Jokela School Massacre, took place on November 7 in the municipality of Tuusula, located approximately 50 kilometers north of Helsinki. At 11:40 am local time, Pekka-Erik Auvinen opened fire on people in the school building. As a result, six students (five young men and a girl), the school principal and the school nurse were killed.
When the first shots rang out, panic began in the school. The school principal ordered everyone via local radio to stay in the classrooms and barricade the doors. Some of the students began to break windows to get out. 11 people received various injuries from glass fragments, another student was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound.
Already at 11:55, about a hundred police officers in full protective gear surrounded the school building. The shooter was demanded to drop his weapon and surrender, to which he fired several shots towards the police cordon, but missed. All this time, Auvinen walked along the school corridors, knocking on locked doors and shooting through them.
About 20 minutes after the shooting began, Auvinen attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head. He was seriously wounded and died in the evening in the hospital without regaining consciousness. However, the police, who by the way did not fire a single shot, did not know about this and did not remove the cordon around the school for another three hours.
The investigation believes that the killer chose victims at random, simply shooting at those who came to his hand. The only exceptions seem to be the school principal, Helena Calmi, and the school nurse.
The crime weapon was a Sig Sauer Mosquito pistol of .22 caliber (5.6 millimeters), legally purchased and registered by the killer on October 19 of this year. According to classmates, Auvinen led a calm and secluded lifestyle, but at the same time was not a recluse. He was a member of a local shooting club and had not previously come to the attention of law enforcement agencies.
At the same time, some students said that Auvinen was not liked at school and was a constant subject of ridicule. According to teachers, his academic performance was above average, he was interested in history and philosophy, and showed interest in extremist movements, both far-right and far-left.
By all standards, the killer comes from a normal, prosperous family: his father is a musician, and his mother works as an assistant to a local municipal council member. Light on the reasons that prompted Auvinen to take this action can be shed by homemade videos that he posted on the social network YouTube under the name Sturmgeist89.
One of the videos was titled "I'm Just Checking My Gun." To the song Stray Bullet by KMFDM, the student aimed directly at the camera, hinting at his readiness for decisive action. It was the Sig Sauer Mosquito pistol demonstrated by Auvinen that became the murder weapon.
A few hours before the crime, another video appeared on YouTube, titled “Yokela High School Massacre - 7/11/2007.” It was later deleted by the YouTube administration due to violation of the terms of use of the service, and the user's account was blocked.
In the explanation for the video, Auvinen explained that he planned the crime on his own and asked not to think that “books, computer games or anything else” pushed him to do this. The killer also published a manifesto on his website, in which he explained the motives for his actions. According to him, he is ready to “fight and die” for his idea, which was to destroy everyone who “disgraces the human race and is a mistake of natural selection.”
Auvinen was previously registered on YouTube under the name naturalselector89. On his page, videos were posted about the massacre at the American Columbine school, where in April 1999 two schoolchildren shot and killed 12 students and a teacher, about the siege of the Branch Davidian religious sect, in which almost 80 people died, about the gas attack in the Tokyo subway carried out by members of the totalitarian sect "Aum Shinrikyo", and about the bombing of Iraq during the American invasion.
In materials about the page's user, Auvinen listed "natural selection" and "hatred of humanity" among his interests. Its names on the Internet also speak for themselves: naturalselector translates as instrument of natural selection, and Sturmgeist in German means both "fighting spirit" and "phantom of battle."
Calling himself a "social Darwinist," Auvinen wrote that "death and murder are not a tragedy...not all human lives are important and worth saving." He said he was declaring his own war on “humanity, governments and the feeble-minded masses.”
In Finland, which has a population of 5.2 million, there are 56 small arms for every 100 people. According to this indicator, the country ranks third in the world. However, gun violence is low. Only 14 percent of all murders are committed with its help.
The President and Prime Minister of Finland sent condolences to the families and friends of the victims. On November 8, national mourning was declared in the country.
As news agencies reported the tragic details around the world, it was already obvious that this case was clearly different from the tragedy that occurred several years ago in an American high school.
When the 1999 Columbia school massacre in which teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher and then themselves, people asked, “How could they do that?” But Harris and Klebold were dead, and investigators had to spend a lot of time carefully analyzing all the facts to understand the motive for the crime. (One of the most impressive facts was the inscription “Natural Selection” on the T-shirt of one of the criminals on the day of the massacre.)
Within a few hours, investigators of the Finnish tragedy managed to find out what was on the mind of the murderer Pekka-Erik Auvinen, who committed suicide. They were shocked when they discovered a video compiled by Pekka-Erik of the upcoming bloody performance, which he posted on the Internet on YouTube. Auvinen's statements published on YouTube (and other blogs on the Internet) helped to understand his beliefs (that is, what he believed in before his death).
He believed that there is no Creator God and therefore no special purpose for human existence. Note that Auvinen's beliefs are based on the assumption that evolution is true:
- “I am a cynical existentialist, an anti-human humanist, an anti-social social Darwinist, a pragmatic idealist and a god-like atheist.”
- “Life is simply a coincidence... the result of a long process of evolution and many other factors, causes and effects.”
- “There are no other universal laws except the laws of nature and the laws of physics”
- “Evolution is both a theory and a fact; creationism is neither.”
- “Religious people, your gods are nothing, and they exist only in your imagination. Your slavish morals mean nothing to me. I am both the god and the devil of my own life."
- “What's the best thing in life? It ends. Although there are probably some other good things in life that are worth living for, sometimes you lose them or you don’t get them.”
- "Don't trust anyone... but rely only on
- "I am the dictator of my own life"
- "HUMANITY IS OVERRATED!" Human life is not sacred. Humans are just another species among other animal species, and the world is not just for humans. Death is not a tragedy; it happens all the time in nature between species. Not all human lives are important and not all people deserve to be saved. Sometimes I feel like no one really deserves to live at all."
- “Today the process of natural selection is directed in a completely wrong direction. The modern human race has betrayed not only its ancestors, but also future generations."
- “It’s time to put the process of NATURAL SELECTION AND SURVIVAL OF THE FITTTEST on the right path!”
- “I cannot say that I belong to the same race as all THIS insignificant, arrogant and selfish humanity. No! I have moved one step higher in my evolutionary development.”
- “I am ready to fight and die for my beliefs. I, as the one who directs natural selection, will destroy all those whom I deem unsuitable, a disgrace to the human race and a failure of natural selection."
- “The sooner the human race is wiped out from the face of the earth, the better... no one should be left alive. No mercy for the dregs of society"
- “I am the law, judge and executioner. There is no greater power than myself."
All of the above statements from Auvinen's statement are based on the idea that everything in the world began to exist on its own - that everything evolved. It turned out that the worldview of the Columbia school killers was also based on this idea. This doctrine, which is more formally called "evolutionary theory", is doctrine taught to our children in schools and universities around the world. And as the situations in Finland and the USA show, the world is simply reaping the benefits of such “education.”
A person’s faith is still of great importance
This recent tragedy is certainly another "disturbing reminder" for those who say that the "controversy" over creation and evolution is just a scientific issue. But as tragic events in a Finnish high school and in the United States show, what a person believes about his or her origins can be very destructive - not only to his own life, but also to those around him.
“I have moved one step higher in my evolutionary development,” said Pekka Erik-Auvinen
From childhood, Harris, Klebold and Auvinen were taught that man is simply an animal, and that death and violence are an integral part of life. In fact, from an evolutionary point of view, one could even say that death is something good, because if selection does not occur and death does not destroy the weak, man will not evolve. Therefore, in the eyes of those who want to logically apply Darwinian principles to the real world, death and violence become natural evolutionary mechanisms that acted randomly over millions of years to create modern life forms, including humans. Thus, when the theory of evolution is taught in schools and universities, society is actually giving the student the "programming" he needs to justify evolution (as he understands it) and to "help the evolutionary process" - that is, simply remove some individuals from the gene pool. Sometimes such “individuals” may include the student himself.
One person from Australia spoke at a national forum on depression in the community:
“... I think that some people are simply unable to fight, and this may sound a little harsh, but this is the essence of Darwin's theory - the theory of survival of the fittest. Perhaps some of us are not meant to survive, perhaps some of us are meant to kill ourselves..." And:
“In fact, there are too many people in the world. Perhaps this means survival of the fittest. Perhaps some of us are simply meant to give in, and that will only help the human species."
You can hear these comments echo in Auvinen's gaze. Both of these people, by their statements, say that the possible effect of what children are taught in school is not limited to exams, but can have lasting consequences. If all this is applied to the reported shootings of people, then teaching the theory of evolution to youth in a Finnish high school and in the state of Columbia had such a powerful impact on three young students that their lives were simply were destroyed. These tragedies also affected (to varying degrees and duration) the lives of their parents, the lives of other students, teachers, police officers, emergency and hospital personnel, pastors and mental health counselors, and even members of government.
Obviously, the question of creationism and evolution is not “just a scientific question”! These massacres did not just destroy lives, they directly destroyed, that is, the lives of 24 people were cut short. If we look at the situation from a purely practical point of view, is this really the ideology that society would like to teach its children, and the consequences of which can be so clearly seen by everyone today?
Antidote
After the American school massacre, we came to the conclusion that the only way to defuse the evolutionary “walking time bombs” in our society is to tell our children the true story of our origins, as recorded in the Bible. This will enable young people (and older people) to understand that death is not a “natural evolutionary mechanism” but a consequence of sin. Moreover, people will be able to understand that God loved this world so much that he gave that “life-saving first aid kit” in the form of His Son Jesus Christ, Who died for our sins (see article Good News!).
The Bible is clear that we are not bacteria that evolved, but the descendants of the first man and woman on earth, created in the image of God, and that because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we know that our lives have meaning and meaning. History shows that people who love the Lord with all their mind, as written in Matthew 22:37, are not going to become murderers.