School murder in Barcelona today (April 20, 2015)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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A 13-year old student went to his high school in Barcelona armed with a home-made crossbow, a machete and (reports differ here) either a molotov cocktail or a pellet gun.

He killed a teacher and wounded 4 people (two teachers and two students) before being subdued. Apparently the four wounded are out of danger as of now.

There are no 100% reliable reports yet, but it is said that the kid “heard voices” and that, apparently, in the past he talked about killing all of his teachers and then himself.

The kid is now under psychiatric observation in the children’s hospital of Sant Joan de Déu. His parents are there, and police is guarding the room where he is kept.

Children younger than 14 are deemed to be “not criminally responsible” in Spain. The law explicitly says that they cannot be tried, and are deemed to not be legally responsible for their acts. They are supposed to be left in proper care and to be dealt with by means of rehabilitation and/or education.

The only exception is if there are serious psychiatric issues that would requiere long-term treatment. I imagine that this might be the case here.

However, what the law says is that parents or guardians are “legally responsible for what the children in their charge do”. Not to the extent of going to jail because their kid murdered somebody, but definitely on the hook for monetary compensation to the victims and their families.

These are really sad news. Also, I have several very good friends that are high school teachers and sometimes they tell me stories that are definitely hair-raising. Sometimes I think that teachers are, by far, not paid well enough to deal with some of the shit they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again.

P.S.: Also, and this is my nerdy engineer side talking – that kid must definitely have some engineering talent if he is able to build a functional and obviously very lethal crossbow at home on his own. What a waste of a mind that looks like it could have done something much better. What a waste of two young lives --the teacher’s, and the kid’s.

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Ow, typo in the thread title – It should read “murder” instead of “murders”. Self-reported to moderators for title change…

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Thread title changed by request for accuracy.

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Barcelona. If there are many cities on Earth I’d like to have not tainted by this kind of madness, that one’s on the list.

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Do we know that the crossbow was the weapon used for the killing? Is there a picture – how is it known it is home made? I’m certain they can be purchased, though maybe not in Spain.

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Yes, the teacher was killed with the crossbow, and yes, it was homemade.

I seem to remember that (I think) the Mythbusters demonstrated that a potentially lethal crossbow analogue could be built with materials available inside a prison.

I did not particularly doubt that that kid could have built a “crossbow” powerful enough to be potentially lethal.

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Yes, they can be purchased. Legal purchase requires a weapons license; a 13yo cannot purchase one (they can’t have licenses either, they can use weapons under parental responsibility). This can be avoided relatively easily but the easiest way is to have a relative buy the weapon for you. That requires the relative to have a license, which in turn requires him to take a course in how to use the weapon (before buying it). If the weapon is being bought for a child, the child is supposed to also get training - trainers get different qualifications if they will only train adults or if they train kids as well (my own trainer didn’t take kids, but one of the other clubs that use the same range does).

We really need to have better protocols for early detection of schizophrenia; the biggest causes of murder in the country seem to be schizophrenia onset, dude not accepting his woman isn’t his any more, and family fights (not in order of frequency).

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For context, this was on the anniversary of the Columbine killings.

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… which this particular kid may have heard about but most people in Spain wouldn’t even know what they are, much less when they took place.