Chilling moment gun obsessive plotting Dunblane-style massacre

Chilling moment gun obsessive plotting Dunblane-style massacre at ex-primary school smiles throughout police interview after arrest for plotting ‘revenge shooting’

• Reed Wischhusen, 32, was arrested near Weston-super-Mare last November 
• He was convicted of plotting a massacre and will be sentenced on December 15

This is the chilling moment a gun obsessive who plotted a Dunblane-style massacre smiled eerily at investigators during a police interview, while refusing to comment over his abhorrent plans.

‘Model’ Lidl employee Reed Wischhusen, 32, was arrested by police after charging at them with a pistol at his home in the sleepy Somerset village of Wick St Lawrence last November.

A search of his house revealed an ‘armoury’ of firearms, explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition in his shed – as well as a chilling document on his computer setting out his ‘revenge’ plan.

Footage from his police interview shows Wischhusen grinning at detectives and replying ‘no comment’ as they pore over the horrific details of his plot.

Driven by a ‘macabre interest’ in killers such as Raoul Moat and Thomas Hamilton – who shot dead 16 pupils and a teacher at a school in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996 – Wischhusen intended to visit carnage on several locations across the West Country.

His ‘hitman-style attack’ included a kill list of a dozen people, including primary school bullies, teachers he disliked and police staff who had denied him a firearms licence.

Wischhusen smiled eerily at investigators during a police interview, while refusing to comment over his abhorrent plans

Bodycam footage of police arresting Reed Wischhusen at his home near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on November 28 last year

Wischhusen had drawn up a ‘kill-list’ of former classmates and others he wanted to target, a jury was told

Reed Wischhusen (right) appearing at Bristol Crown Court during one of the hearings of his trial

READ MORE:  Moment police shoot man, 32, accused of assembling an arsenal of weapons for a ‘revenge’ killing spree at his former primary school

Such was the depth of his grudge, some of the targets on his list could barely remember Wischhusen from school when they were later contacted by police, it can now be revealed.

The gun nut’s plot involved shooting several targets, disguised in a wig and make-up, before murdering teachers and throwing bombs at his old primary school in Weston-super-Mare and then attacking Avon and Somerset Police headquarters in Bristol.

‘Revenge on my mind, it’s a powerful motivator,’ Wischhusen’s document began.

But, on November 28 last year, five officers visited Wischhusen’s home after receiving a chance tip-off about him converting blank firearms into lethal weapons.

The warehouse worker excused himself to go to the toilet, moments later sending the officers into panic when they heard the sound of a gun being cocked and fired.

Wischhusen had unsuccessfully tried to kill himself with a shot to the head only to emerge wielding his pistol and begin running down the stairs at two armed officers, who shot and apprehended him. The officers said they had feared for their life.

The wannabe killer survived his injuries after four months in hospital and, on Thursday, was found guilty of a string of weapons offences by a jury at Bristol Crown Court.

The pistol which Reed Wischhusen confronted police with at his home in Wick St Lawrence

Pictured: Officers at Wischhusen’s Somerset home on November 29 last year

Following a trial he was convicted of charges including possessing explosive substances with intent to endanger life, possessing a pistol with intent to endanger life and possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life.

During his evidence, Wischhusen had tried to portray himself as a fantasist who was only interested in guns as a hobby and had no intention of trying to use them. He claimed he had run at police with the firearm so they would shoot him dead.

One of his viable guns was an antique bolt-action rifle from the 19th Century, while the pistol he tried to turn on himself was a blank-firing gun he had successfully converted in his dilapidated outhouse, using DIY guides from the internet.

He bizarrely claimed during evidence that he was ‘going to make some mind-control substance and launch it at the police’ using a rocket launcher, but abandoned the plan.

But prosecutors argued that the ‘revenge’ document had outlined his murderous intentions – and said he was ‘building’ the weaponry needed to turn it into a reality.

In it, he wrote that the first phase would be a ‘hitman-style attack’ where he would use a range of disguises to give him a ‘more Arab look’.

He said he begin by using a ‘converted pistol with a silencer’ for the ten named victims.

He then outlined different scenarios for the next phase of his attack.

One included a ‘diversion stage’ where he would ‘get back at the school, walk in and shoot a few teachers dead, and throw a pipe bomb or two to stir things up.’

Reed Wischhusen, 32, (dressed in a police costume) has been convicted of plotting a Dunblane-style massacre against school bullies and police with an arsenal of DIY firearms built in his shed

Pictured: The ‘Revenge’ document that was seized by police and read out in Bristol Crown Court

Police are heard shouting at Mr Wischhusen during a search of his house to ‘put the gun down’ before firing three shots at him as he came rushing down the stairs

Another scenario he wrote would involve triggering the fire alarm at Avon and Somerset Police HQ and ‘plant pressure-cooker bombs at the fire assembly point and detonate them, then open fire at staff with submachine guns etc’.

He said he would then access the building with a stolen ID before setting up a gas explosion and then committing suicide with the shotgun.

He wrote: ‘Hopefully the gas explosion would destroy a good chunk of the building just like the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 but a very mini version.’

Another scenario he wrote about was to ‘ambush and kill (police) staff sitting outside’ before going ‘room to room shooting at office staff’.

He said he would then open fire out the windows and throw pipe bombs while ‘remotely detonating the pressure-cooker bombs planted around the building’ before taking his own life.

He wrote: ‘This sounds the best one – a Columbine-style attack.’

He also documented the huge arsenal of weapons – including homemade guns and explosives and other equipment – he would use in the attacks.

In the document, he also wrote: ‘Yes, revenge is on my mind it’s a powerful motivator, be nice to get back at the people who caused me stress and worry over the years it’s been eating away at my brain like cancer.’

The trial heard that alongside his firearms he also stored vast quantities of chemicals that could be used to create ‘IEDs’, a court heard.

Adam Vaitilingam KC, defending, tried to present Wischhusen’s murderous plot as the ‘fantasies of a man who, frankly, did not have much else going on’.

Yet jurors also heard that Wischhusen had been taking the homemade pistol to work in his jacket pocket for months, fully loaded.

Troublingly, he had even managed to get hold of an Avon and Somerset Police badge and took a picture of himself wearing a police uniform and posing with a gun.

Jonathan Rees KC, prosecuting, said Wischhusen ‘fantasised about having his own gun for a long time and he made that fantasy a reality’.

‘He fantasised about having a working sub-machine gun capable of lethal force for a long time – and he made that a reality,’ he continued.

‘He fantasised about having a working automatic handgun and he made that a reality – capable of lethal force and with live ammunition to go with it.

‘Reed Wischhusen’s fantasises are so inherently dangerous. Indulging in them itself was dangerous and put other people’s lives in danger.’

Wischhusen will be sentenced on December 15.

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