Turkish school shooter used image referencing 2014 U.S. mass killer, police say

A 14-year-old student who shot dead eight fellow pupils at a school in Turkey had used an image referencing a 2014 U.S. mass killer, Elliot Rodger, on his

WhatsApp profile, police said on Thursday. In Turkey's second school shooting in just two days, the middle school student also killed a teacher and wounded 20 other people in Wednesday's attack in the southeastern Kahramanmaras province, shocking a nation where school shootings are very rare.



Turkish police said initial findings showed that the assailant had used an image referencing the U.S. gunman Rodger, who killed six college students near Santa Barbara, California in 2014.



"Initial findings indicate no connection to terrorism, the incident is believed to be an individual attack," police said. Rodger had expressed frustration about his lack of success with women in an internet manifesto before his U.S. rampage, and he was later praised by a number of perpetrators of school

shootings.



It was not immediately clear whether the Turkish teenager had the same motivation as Rodger.