On this day, Nov. 26, in 2004, Yan Yanming stabbed 12 boys in a Chinese dormitory, killing nine of them.
Yanming’s mother reported him to police, who arrested him before he could commit suicide.
According to news reports at the time, all of the boys attacked by the 21-year-old were in bottom bunks at Ruzhou’s High School No. 2.
Chinese police released few details about the killing, saying only that Yanming acted out of hate toward the students. It was fourth in a string of attacks targeting Chinese schoolchildren in 2004. The attacks prompted China’s president to require schools to hire security guards. All of the attacks involved men armed with knives.
It was never clear to outsiders what prompted them. The attackers were from different backgrounds. In one case, a school employee who stabbed and killed a Beijing kindergartner, had a history of mental illness.
Yanming was convicted and executed in January 2005.
— Freeman Klopott
