The 2014 Helsinki University massacre plan was a

mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

planned by two people in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The plan was discovered in spring 2014. The attack never happened, because a third person reported the plan to the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

. The perpetrators were planning to kill several people, possibly 50 randomly chosen people, at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

with guns and poison gas.Björksten, Tuomo
Yliopistoiskua suunnitelleet harkitsivat joukkosurmaa myös maratonille tai Linnan juhliin

YLE Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

Uutiset, 26 May 2014. Accessed on 26 May 2014.

The accused

Two people were charged for planning the attack, a man from

Kemi Kemi (; sme, Giepma ; smn, Kiemâ; sms, Ǩeeʹmm; Swedish (historically): ''Kiemi'') is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio and the Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and to Rovani ...

, born in 1990, and a woman from

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Greater Helsinki, Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa i ...

, born in 1989.Hänninen, Jyri; Passi, Minna
Esitutkinta: Yliopistoisku peruuntui viime hetkellä tammikuussa
HS.fi, 26 May 2014. Accessed on 27 May 2014. The defendants had devised a plan to obtain firearms by robbing a gun shop and to manufacture arsine gas to kill 50 people at the University of Helsinki. In addition, the defendants had weighed up the possibility of carrying out an attack at the

Finnish Parliament The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

or at a football match. In interrogations, the defendants admitted to having been inspired by the

Boston Marathon bombings The Boston Marathon bombing was a Domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist attack that took place during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Two terrorists, brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, plante ...

in April 2013. Neither of them are enrolled at the University of Helsinki.Teivainen, Aleksi: Duo jailed for plotting killing spree at University of Helsinki http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/11028-duo-jailed-for-plotting-killing-spree-at-university-of-helsinki.html, Helsinki Times 29 June 2014

Planning the attack

The accused met each other on 23 December 2012 through the Tor anonymity network. From the start, their discussions concerned planning a mass murder. Possible targets included a

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

, a

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

, the Finnish Parliament House, the Presidential Independence Day Reception and numerous education institutions. The University of Helsinki was chosen as a target in August 2013, because it would be possible to kill many young people there. The accused acquired much equipment suitable for the attack, such as a

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fi ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

s and a large amount of

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

, combat belts,

gas mask A gas mask is a mask used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft tissues of the face. Most gas mask ...

s and chemicals suitable for creating poisonous

arsine Arsine (IUPAC name: arsane) is an inorganic compound with the formula As H3. This flammable, pyrophoric, and highly toxic pnictogen hydride gas is one of the simplest compounds of arsenic. Despite its lethality, it finds some applications in th ...

gas.Yliopistoiskua suunnitelleet harkitsivat joukkosurmaa myös maratonille tai Linnan juhliin
YLE, 26 May 2014. Accessed on 27 May 2014. The accused had originally discussed carrying out the attack on 20 January 2014. The man had travelled to

on 15 January, carrying the equipment he had acquired, and stayed with the woman. On 17 January, the two accused people had gone to investigate the University premises, and had studied the premises through the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. On the morning of 20 January the man said he wanted to move the attack to a later date. He told the woman that he wanted to plan the attack better and acquire more equipment. The accused had discussed starting the attack by robbing a weapons store near the University. By thus having acquired more weapons, they would have moved straight to the University, where they would have killed people at random. In their discussions, they mentioned locking the exits, setting fire to the building and spreading poison gas. The accused mentioned wanting to die in the attack.

Prevention of the attack

The accused man contacted a third person via Tor anonymity network on 23 January 2014, who had also written texts concerning mass murder. The accused man asked the third person whether they wanted to take part in the attack. After five days of messaging, it became apparent that the attack was planned to take place on 10 March. The accused man had placed an announcement on the Tor network looking for an accomplice to take part in a "massage". The man was caught when an undercover police officer replied to the announcement. According to the court, the man had used the word "massage" because he had confused it with the word "massacre".Helsingin yliopistolle joukkosurmaa suunnitellut mies halusi syyttäjän mukaan aseita, joilla "on helppo lähteä teurastamaan porukkaa" – etsi Tor-verkossa kaveria suorittamaan "hieronnan"
MTV Uutiset 4 March 2019. Accessed on 4 March 2019. The defendants were nabbed by the police in March, after a 17-year-old girl who had been asked to take part in the attack by the male defendant revealed the plan to her friend. The accused man was arrested during a home search on 4 March and the woman was arrested on the next day. Equipment for the planned attack was found at both of their homes. Both were declared as imprisoned on 8 March.

Trial and sentence

The

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

concerning the matter began at The District Court of Helsinki on 26 May 2014. The District Court of Helsinki on 26 June 2014 sentenced a 24-year-old man and woman to prison for three years for a conspiracy to carry out a killing spree at the University of Helsinki. The attack was initially set to be carried out in January 2014, but the defendants called it off to refine their plans. Both defendants denied the charges in court, insisting that they had no intention of carrying out the attack.

References

2014 in Finland 2010s in Helsinki Crime in Helsinki University of Helsinki