Death toll at 16 after gunman shot dead in Germany

The death toll in Wednesday's school shooting in Germany has risen to 16, including the 17-year-old masked gunman, nine students, three teachers and three passers-by, according to Heribert Rech, the interior minister of the Baden-Wuerttemberg. In a press conference in Berlin Wednesday afternoon, German chancellor Angela Merkel called the crime "incomprehensible." "I cannot understand what is going on," she added. The killer went on a rampage at his former school in Winnenden, near the southern city of Stuttgart, before being shot in a firefight with police around 40 kilometres (25 miles) away. Two policemen were also seriously injured during the police shootout. Other German news sources, including Bild, quoted local police as saying the boy’s parents own 18 licensed firearms. The father is a successful businessman. “The boy may have been taking revenge for being expelled,” said Anne Maillet. “The boy was known to the police already,” said Damien McGuinness. According to Maillet, the school is not particularly academically high-pressure, and the area is somewhat affluent, so the shooting was especially “shocking.”