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Finnish Killer Linked to US Teen

Massacre gunman chatted online with Philly attack plotter

By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 13, 2007 3:28 AM CST

(Newser) – The Finnish teenager who killed eight people and committed suicide last week chatted online with a Philadelphia area youth who plotted a Columbine-style assault at a suburban school. Dillon Cossey, 14, told his attorney that the Finnish youth "gave no indication he was going to do anything violent" and Cossey insisted he "offered nothing in the way of encouragement."

Authorities are hoping the information may offer some insight into the Finnish teen's conduct. Both boys were avid players of the video game "Hitman," and shared an obsession with the students responsible for the Columbine high school massacre. Cossey, who was arrested last month after police confiscated a stockpile of weapons in his bedroom, is awaiting a hearing to determine a treatment program.

An armed policeman stands in front of the school of Perttu in  Tuusula, Finland yesterdaywhen pupils of Jokela school temporarily join classes here following a shooting incident at their school.  Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, killed six students, the head teacher and a nurse before turning the gun on himself. (AP Photo...
An armed policeman stands in front of the school of Perttu in Tuusula, Finland yesterdaywhen pupils of Jokela school temporarily join classes here following a shooting incident at their school. Pekka-Eric...   (Associated Press)
Dillon Cossey, 14, arrives in the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse for his hearing in Norristown, Pa., in this Oct. 12, 2007 file photo. Cossey is accused of plotting a Columbine-style attack on a suburban Philadelphia high school, and has admitted that he illegally stockpiled weapons.(AP Photo/Bradley C....
Dillon Cossey, 14, arrives in the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse for his hearing in Norristown, Pa., in this Oct. 12, 2007 file photo. Cossey is accused of plotting a Columbine-style attack...   (Associated Press)
Dillon Cossey, 14, is led into the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse for a hearing in Norristown, Pa., in this Oct. 12, 2007 file photo. Cossey, who admitted plotting a school attack near Philadelphia, had chatted online about the Columbine massacre with a teenage outcast who killed eight people...
Dillon Cossey, 14, is led into the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse for a hearing in Norristown, Pa., in this Oct. 12, 2007 file photo. Cossey, who admitted plotting a school attack near...   (Associated Press)
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