The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Gunman plotted murders at his former school as revenge attack
A GUNMAN who plotted a “hitman-style attack” at his former school wanted to send a “violent message to those he felt had wronged him”, the prosecutors said as he was jailed for life.
Reed Wischhusen, 32, had a “macabre interest” in the Dunblane gunman Thomas Hamilton, murderer Raoul Moat and US mass killers and had built firearms and explosives for his planned mass shooting.
He intended to target 10 people as well as shoot dead teachers and attack Avon and Somerset Police headquarters, Bristol Crown Court was told.
He had compiled an armoury of homemade weapons including pistols, submachine guns and a shotgun, bombs, grenades and poison.
Wischhusen, a warehouse worker at Lidl supermarket, wrote his plans in a document he dubbed “revenge”.
The first phase would be a “hitman-style attack” where he would murder 10 people before shooting “a few teachers dead” and throwing “a pipe bomb or two to stir things up”.
His plans were stopped only when uniformed officers visited the home he shared with his father in Wick St Lawrence, Somerset, in November 2022 after a tip-off about weapons.
During the search of his home, Wischhusen attempted to shoot himself in the head with a concealed pistol in the bathroom before running downstairs to confront the armed officers.
Fearing they were going to be killed, officers shot him twice. He spent several months recovering in hospital.
Wischhusen was convicted of having an explosive substance, possessing ammunition and a firearm, all with intent to endanger life, and possessing a prohibited firearm without a certificate.
He had previously admitted having a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, a prohibited firearm and ammunition without a firearm certificate.
Judge Martin Picton had directed the jury to find Wischhusen guilty of an eighth charge of having an explosive substance.
Adam Vaitilingam KC, defending, told the court Wischhusen was of previously good character and “some ability”.
“It was a spur of the moment to take the gun and shoot himself and after that have it used so the officers would shoot him,” he said.
Judge Picton said Wischhusen was obsessed with firearms and explosives. “Your obsessions in this regard are long standing,” he said.
“I have do doubt that what you committed to writing in your journals represented your true thoughts rather than being fantasy as you set out to persuade the jury,” he added.
Imposing a life sentence with a minimum term of 12 years, the judge described the events of Nov 28 as “truly shocking”.
Andrew Pritchard, specialist prosecutor for CPS South West, said: “It is clear Wischhusen had the means to enact a deadly plan with terrible consequences. His intention was to send a message to those he felt had wronged him, from school bullies to officers who had refused him firearms licences.”