The shooter killed by police at a
Wisconsin middle school was a 14-year student obsessed with the Columbine school massacre who wanted his classmates to experience 'true fear'.
Damian Haglund died in a flurry of gunfire at Mount Horeb Middle School on Wednesday morning leaving behind a chilling manifesto naming some of the schoolchildren he wanted dead.
Haglund ran a series of anonymized social media accounts, and ominously posted 'My last morning', in his final tweet just two hours before his attack.
Weeks earlier he revealed how his obsession with school massacres had 'screwed up' his life.
'Not just Columbine, Sandy Hook, Ecole Polytech, Kerch, All the School Movies. No one gets 'Columbiners', very few even know what it is.
'There's porn addiction helplines, there's helplines for suicidal people, drunks, pedos, rapists, BUT NO ONE CAN HELP ME ON EARTH.'
Witnesses reported seeing him shooting into a cafeteria after trying to break a window with the butt of a 'long gun' during eighth-grade lunchtime at about 11.15am before he was tackled by a school resource officer from Mount Horeb Police Department.
'People my age are really the real enemy,' he wrote. 'They pose the most hate to me, if you don't play the game, if you don't feed the machine, you're an outcast.'
The entire school district was placed in hard lockdown with some students not released to the parents until early evening as police tried to establish whether the shooter was operating alone.
Jeanne Keller heard about five gunshots ring out from her shop The Quilting Jeanne, yards away on the same block.
'It was maybe like pow-pow-pow-pow. I thought it was fireworks. I went outside and saw all the children running, I probably saw 200 children.'
Max Kelly, 12, was among a class of students practicing in-line skating in the school gym when the gunfire rang out.
He said their teacher told them to flee and they dashed, still in their skates, into the street.
Photos showed a ditch full of skates hastily discarded by the students before they ran to nearby convenience stores and a gas station where they hid in bathrooms.
The class was still shoeless when they were reunited with their terrified parents outside the school.
'I don't think anywhere is safe anymore,' said Max's mom, Alison Kelly,32.
In his blog Haglund singled out one schoolmate he hated, and fantasized about seeing her hit by a truck.
'Like how her Skull'd fricking pop from the pressure when the wheels crush the cranium, the scream.
'And some kids are just so stupid, I hope they experience true fear in their lives somehow.'
He detailed 'Diversity, Feminists' among his 'hates', and wrote of how he feared women.
'I don't mean to be all wolf-like, but I have a way different side than people at school see me as,' he added.
He spoke of visiting Weston High School in Cazenovia north of Madison where principal John Klang was fatally gunned down in a 2006 school shooting.
'When I went there the energy was powerful,' he claimed.
'I went outside and touched the walls of the school, but I didn't want to get arrested or something.'
He wrote that 'Ever since a kid I've wanted to be famous', and pictures on his family's.
But his posts spoke too of his own suicidal thoughts.
'You need to understand the huge wall I have been backed into. What therapist can help me? I face worse criminal punishments than those that are suicidal,' he wrote.
'I hate my existence because I fear everything, I AM TIRED OF THIS.
'My family thinks I actually have a plan after High School, no, I don't, and if my parents ever look back, they might just see they knew NOTHING about me, and I don't blame them.'
Days before his death he updated his blog, warning that 'Looks like time is kind of running out for me, no going back for whatever I do.
'I'm sure my town being 'Mt Horeb' will bring a lot of interesting connections.'
In a tweet he night before his death he wrote: 'I want to continue to indulge in media, night core, videogames, but when you continue living, these simple things become so mundane. I'm going to miss you.'
The investigation is being led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice and at a press conference on Wednesday night Attorney General Josh Kaul said he did not believe there was an ongoing threat.
In a statement on Sunday his office revealed that the 'long gun' Haglund was carrying had been a Ruger .1777 caliber pellet rifle.
'Officers directed the subject to drop the weapon, but the subject did not comply,' he added.
'The subject pointed the weapon at the officers, after which law enforcement discharged their firearms, striking the subject. Lifesaving measures were deployed but the subject died at the scene.'
'No law enforcement officers or witnesses were physically injured during the incident.'
He confirmed on Thursday that more than one officer had fired on Haglund amid reports that as many as 12 shots were fired.
Mount Horeb chief of police Doug Vierck pleaded with the public not to spread 'rumors' about the case, insisting the authorities are 'working as quickly as we can to move forward so we can come to a closure'.
Before sharing information ask yourself, 'Is it true?' 'Can I absolutely know that it's true?' he demanded.
'If either answer is no, please do not share the information. For the sake of everyone involved, please do not spread rumors.'
'The show of support from businesses, other agencies, and the community at large has been beyond humbling.'
But his department were directing calls for information to the DoJ who were not responding to inquiries on Thursday.
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