Lawyer: Finnish teen, Pa. boy chatted

Lawyer: Finnish teen, Pa. boy chatted

By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 6 minutes ago

PHILADELPHIA - A teenager who admitted plotting a school attack near Philadelphia had communicated online about the Columbine massacre with a teenage outcast who killed eight people and himself in a high school shooting in Finland, the Pennsylvania boy's attorney said Monday.

But the teen was "horrified" when he found out about the Finnish attack and said he never would have suspected him of following through with a violent act, the attorney said.

Finnish police said material seized from the computer of Pekka-Eric Auvinen suggests the 18-year-old had communicated online with Dillon Cossey, 14, who was arrested in October on suspicion of preparing an attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in suburban Philadelphia. The attack never took place.

Cossey's attorney, J. David Farrell, said that he showed Auvinen's online screen name to the Pennsylvania boy Monday and that his client remembered communicating with the Finnish teen in August or September about video games and the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado and exchanging videos they found on the Internet.

"They had discussed certain video games and shared videos with each other," Farrell said. "Obviously, Columbine was a shared topic of interest."

The two met through the YouTube video-sharing site, Farrell said. They also exchanged posts on a Web site dedicated to the Columbine killers, traded e-mail and likely chatted on certain Web sites, he said.

Auvinen killed six students, a nurse and the principal Wednesday in Tuusula, about 30 miles north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki. He then shot himself in the head and died hours later at a hospital.

Police in Finland said they had not yet been in contact with their U.S. colleagues about a possible link between the two teens.

In Pennsylvania, detectives were running the name of the Finnish shooter through the computer seized from Cossey, who admitted in juvenile court to planning an attack.

"We had heard when we first got this guy that he had contacted other people through Web sites," Plymouth Township Deputy Chief Joe Lawrence said. "We wouldn't be shocked by it."

Tipped off by a boy Cossey tried to recruit, Pennsylvania authorities searched his home last month. They found a rifle, about 30 air-powered guns modeled to look like higher-powered weapons, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack and violence-filled notebooks.

Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor said he plans to announce Tuesday what investigators have culled from Cossey's computer.

Finnish investigators have said Auvinen left a suicide note for his family and foreshadowed the attack in YouTube postings. On Monday, Rabbe von Hertzen, a detective in the case, said Auvinen is believed to have written the suicide note on Nov. 5, suggesting he had planned the attacks for at least two days.

"You can be sure that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that are accessing these Web sites," Farrell said.

Police have described Auvinen as a bullied teenage outcast consumed with anger against society.

Cossey told a friend that he wanted to pull off an attack similar to Columbine. Prosecutors and Farrell have said he felt bullied.

Cossey did not produce any videos and knew Auvinen only by his screen name, Farrell said.

"My client didn't encourage him in any way," Farrell said. "He had no indication that somebody he was communicating with actually was formulating an intent to commit a violent act."

Two weeks after his arrest, Cossey admitted to three felonies — criminal solicitation, risking a catastrophe and possession of an instrument of crime — in Montgomery County juvenile court. He is now in juvenile custody, where he could remain for up to six-and-a-half years.

Authorities have accused Cossey's mother, Michele, of helping him build his weapons stash. She is charged with illegally buying her son a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and the 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, which had a laser scope. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 13.

Farrell said he doesn't know whether Dillon Cossey had contact with other people who could pose similar threats, but planned to explore that possibility with investigators and his client.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071113/...chool_shooting

Ever since 1999, every outcast thinks that shooting up a school is the cool thing to do. What the fuck?

I don't understand what this is about. Trying to prevent another school shooting?

Nice avatar modification.

Doubtful. Hopefully they crackdown on Internet groups/sites that promote this kind of shit. I read somewhere that both these kids were in a MySpace group called "RIP Eric and Dylan" which were the two Columbine shooters.