Turkish school shooter used image referencing 2014 U.S. mass killer, police say

Turkish security forces and emergency staff stand in the courtyard of a secondary school where an assailant opened fire, in Kahramanmaras, Turkiye, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (IHA via AP)

ANKARA -- A 14-year-old student who shot at least nine people dead, including eight of his fellow pupils, at a school in southeastern Turkiye had used an image referencing a 2014 U.S. mass killer, Elliot Rodger, on his WhatsApp profile, Turkish police said on Thursday.

In Turkiye’s second school shooting in just two days, the middle school student also wounded 20 other people in Wednesday’s attack in Kahramanmaras province before taking his own life, shocking a nation where school shootings are very rare.

In a statement, the Turkish police department said initial findings showed that the assailant had used an image referencing the U.S. gunman Rodger, who killed six college students near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2014.

“Initial findings indicate no connection to terrorism, the incident is believed to be an individual attack,” the statement also said.

Rodger had expressed frustration about his lack of success with women in an internet manifesto before his rampage, and he was later praised by a number of perpetrators of school shootings.

It was not immediately clear whether the Turkish teenager had the same motivation as Rodger.

The attacker used five pistols that belonged to his police officer father in the attack, and the court jailed the father pending trial, the Kahramanmaras prosecutor’s office said in a separate statement on Thursday.

In its examination, the prosecutor’s office found a document on the attacker’s computer dated April 11 that indicated a major attack would be carried out “in the near future.”

Separately, 83 people across Turkiye have been detained for “glorifying crime and criminals” since the school shootings on Tuesday and Wednesday, the police said, adding that authorities had blocked access to 940 social media accounts and 93 Telegram groups for the same reason.

Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever, editing by Gareth Jones, Reuters