Indictment filed against parents of school shooter in Türkiye’s south

KAHRAMANMARAŞ

Prosecutors have finalized an indictment seeking 10 life sentences for the father of a teenage shooter who killed 10 people at a local secondary school in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş on April 15.

While the jailed father, Uğur Mersinli, faces multiple life terms for killing with eventual intent, the attacker’s mother, Peyman Pınar Mersinli, faces up to 22.5 years in prison for conscious negligence leading to death. The couple will soon appear before the Kahramanmaraş third High Criminal Court.

The attacker carried out the assault using firearms belonging to his father, who was serving as a police officer at the time. His father told prosecutors that he kept his entire arsenal at home. Both parents are also accused of negligence for ignoring clear signs of their son’s psychological problems.

14-year-old İsa Aras Mersinli entered Ayser Çalık Secondary School, fatally shooting one teacher and nine students while injuring 15 others. Security footage showed the assailant checking his handgun outside a restroom before opening fire on two girls from close range. He entered multiple classrooms, repeatedly changing weapons as panicking teachers cut the building’s power.

The rampage ended when four locals rushed into the corridors and wrestled the attacker to the ground. One civilian stabbed the shooter in the leg to halt the violence, leading to his death from severe blood loss. Prosecutors ruled the fatal intervention fell strictly under self-defense boundaries, declining to press murder charges.

Investigators extracted a 44-page manifesto from the shooter’s computer detailing a gruesome, aborted plot to murder his parents with bleach and knives before attacking the school. The investigation uncovered the assailant rehearsed the shooting on the gaming platform Roblox and notified six individuals across messaging apps about the impending attack.

The attacker heavily researched the manifestos of foreign mass shooters, noting he meticulously orchestrated the attack to surpass their casualty counts, official documents reveal.

In a related move addressing the intersection of digital platforms and school safety, the Turkish Parliament on July 21 extended the mandate of a commission investigating school violence and digital risks by one month. The committee demanded measurable, concrete pledges from state institutions to establish a comprehensive child protection system to prevent similar tragedies.