(13 Mar 2009) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of vigil in front of the school
2. Close up of mourners
3. Close up of candles
4. Flags at half mast, pan to mourners
5. Wide of vigil
6. Mid of two girls
7. Mid of candles, flowers and card
8. Various of newspaper headlines
STORYLINE:
Across Germany on Friday, government buildings lowered their flags to half staff, while schools held moments of silence for the victims of a teenager who went on a shooting spree at his former school and killed 15 people.
Students and residents paid homage to the dead outside the school, where they lit candles and laid tulips, roses, handwritten notes and toys as memorials.
Meanwhile, the psychological profile of the teenager began to take shape, as investigators described a withdrawn young man who broke off psychiatric treatment for depression.
But investigators faced a setback Thursday as they struggled to authenticate a chat room posting that purportedly warned of a bloody rampage hours before 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer wreaked havoc on this quiet town near Stuttgart, southwest Germany.
Kretschmer returned to his former high school on Wednesday to kill nine students and three teachers before fleeing on foot and by car, killing three more people, and eventually turning a 9 mm Beretta pistol on himself after a shootout with police.
A joint statement released late Thursday by regional police and Stuttgart prosecutors said that, "in the course of the afternoon, doubts arose about the veracity of the Internet chat."
Authorities and friends said that although Kretschmer played table tennis and lifted weights, his main hobbies appeared to be shooting and spending hours on his computer - where investigators said they found pornographic films, violent computer games and a collection of horror and action films.
The teen, who graduated from Albertville high school with average grades in 2008, underwent several treatment sessions for depression at a psychiatric clinic that year, said an investigator.
He showed up for five sessions between April and September, and was expected to continue outpatient therapy at a different clinic, but never began it, the investigator said.
Authorities said they found some 60 shell casings in the school and that the number of victims could have been much higher had educators and police not carried out a plan learned in an earlier training programme preparing them to respond to such a shooting.
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