Student’s Father Faces Weapons Charges

The father of a 16-year-old student who allegedly shot the headmaster of his boarding school was arrested Friday on weapons charges after police found three illegal weapons among the 46 guns in the family’s home.

The student apparently had a key to get to the guns, which included 43 rifles, two machine guns and a military assault rifle. Private citizens in Germany are not allowed to own the latter two types of weapons.

The ninth-grader, suspended on Wednesday, allegedly returned to the Castle Brannenburg school in the Bavarian town of Brannenburg on Thursday, shot the headmaster in a stairwell and then turned the handgun on himself.

Police said they believe that the boy was seeking revenge for the suspension.

His father, a 43-year-old businessman whose hobby was shooting, had a license to own guns that did not cover the machine guns or assault rifle.

Neither the father’s name nor those of the headmaster and student were released.

Doctors at separate hospitals treating the 57-year-old headmaster and student said Friday they remained in critical condition.

The student had been expelled from the school near the Austrian border because of his “rebellious behavior” and sent home.

On Thursday morning, he came back with two large-caliber guns and 100 rounds of ammunition, police said.

According to police, when he met the headmaster in a stairwell, the youth shot him in the neck, then fired several shots at his own head.

The headmaster, who had also taught the boy’s computer science class, had received the results of a drug test earlier that day, which police said showed the student had been using marijuana.

He had attended the school for 2 1/2 years.

The other 94 students at the school, who range in age from 12 to 18 and come from across Germany, were returned home after the shooting, and the school remained closed Friday.