Turkey school shooting suspect used Elliot Rodger image, police say

Turkish police said a 14-year-old student who carried out a deadly school shooting in southeastern Turkey had used an image referencing Elliot Rodger on his WhatsApp profile, a detail investigators say may help trace how violent ideology moved across borders and into a child’s online life.

The attack unfolded at Ayser Calik School in Kahramanmaras province, where Isa Aras Mersinli opened fire on two classrooms and killed at least nine people, including eight pupils, before turning the gun on himself. By Thursday, the death toll had risen to 10 after one wounded victim died in hospital, and six of the injured were in critical condition. The shooting came after another school attack two days earlier in Siverek, Sanliurfa province, deepening alarm in a country where such violence has been rare.

Police said initial findings did not point to terrorism and described the assault as an individual attack. Investigators said Mersinli used five pistols and seven magazines that belonged to his father, a police officer, and prosecutors later said the father was jailed pending trial after authorities determined the weapons had been taken from his possession. A document found on the attacker’s computer, dated April 11, suggested a major attack would be carried out “in the near future,” pointing to planning rather than a spontaneous act.

The digital footprint has pushed the case beyond one school and into a wider reckoning over youth radicalization, gun access at home and the speed with which violent content spreads online. Turkish authorities said 83 people across the country were detained for “glorifying crime and criminals” after the shootings, while 940 social-media accounts and 93 Telegram groups were blocked. Separate reporting said 67 social-media users were detained over posts targeting 54 different schools.

The country’s interior and education ministries held a joint school-security meeting in Ankara with all 81 provincial governors, police chiefs and provincial education directors as officials tried to reassure anxious families. In Kahramanmaras, funerals were held for eight students and Ayla Kara, a 55-year-old math teacher, as mourners faced the loss of classmates, children and a teacher in a community shaken by a crime that began online, passed through a household arsenal and ended inside a classroom.