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School Shooters Connect Online

Columbine MySpace page links Finnish gunman, US teen who planned massacre

By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 10, 2007 6:40 AM CST

(Newser) – The internet may be a training ground for teenage killers who were previously considered to be desperate loners, suggests the Times of London. Helsinki police believe that Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the Finnish 18-year-old who murdered eight fellow students before shooting himself Wednesday, had spoken in online message boards with Dylan Cossey, the Philadelphia teen arrested last month for planning an attack on his school.

The two boys may have connected through a MySpace page devoted to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine shooters, and another page called "Natural Selection." Cossey, whose mother is charged with supplying him with weapons, considered the Columbine killers to be "heroes," while Auvinen's YouTube rant referenced the language of the Natural Selection group.

This undated picture taken from an internet website shows Pekka-Eric Auvinen who police say killed eight people before turning the gun on himself in a shooting rampage Wednesday at Jokela High School in Tuusula, Finland, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki. Auvinen was a social outcast...
This undated picture taken from an internet website shows Pekka-Eric Auvinen who police say killed eight people before turning the gun on himself in a shooting rampage Wednesday at Jokela High School...   (Associated Press)
A view to the dining room through a broken glass wall at the Jokela school  in Tuusula  Finland Friday Nov. 9, 2007. The police let media in the school on Friday after completing investigation at the school complex. Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, killed six students, the head teacher and a nurse...
A view to the dining room through a broken glass wall at the Jokela school in Tuusula Finland Friday Nov. 9, 2007. The police let media in the school on Friday after completing investigation at the...   (Associated Press)
Dillon Cossey, 14, is returned to his cell from the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse after his hearing in Norristown, Pa. on Oct. 12, 2007. Cossey was charged as a juvenile with solicitation to commit terror and other counts. Authorities say the teenager had a cache of guns, knives...
Dillon Cossey, 14, is returned to his cell from the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse after his hearing in Norristown, Pa. on Oct. 12, 2007. Cossey was charged as a juvenile with solicitation...   (Associated Press)
Two people stand in front of  candles in front of the Jokela school  in Tuusula  Finland Friday Nov. 9, 2007. The police let media in the school on Friday after completing investigation at the school complex. Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, killed six students, the head teacher and a nurse at his...
Two people stand in front of candles in front of the Jokela school in Tuusula Finland Friday Nov. 9, 2007. The police let media in the school on Friday after completing investigation at the school...   (Associated Press)
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