A teenage shooter who perpetrated one of the deadliest school attacks in Turkish history has been identified as a non-binary male student who used “she/her/it” pronouns. İsa Aras Mersinli, who carried out the attack on April 15, reportedly preferred to be referred to as “Konata” – a name belonging to his favorite female character from a Japanese animated series.
The attack took place on Wednesday at Ayser Çalık Secondary School in the Onikişubat district of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. According to Turkish media reports, the incident began at around 1:30 p.m. local time, when an armed student entered the school grounds carrying multiple firearms.
Authorities identified the attacker as 14-year-old İsa Aras Mersinli, an eighth-grade student at the school. Reports indicate that he brought at least five guns and several loaded magazines stolen from his father, a local police chief inspector.
The shooting reportedly began in the schoolyard before Mersinli moved inside the building, where he entered classrooms and fired indiscriminately. Witnesses described scenes of panic as students and staff attempted to flee or hide, with some taking shelter in bathrooms and others escaping through windows.
The attack resulted in the deaths of at least nine people, eight students and one teacher. The teacher, Ayla Kara, died while attempting to shield students in her mathematics class. More than a dozen others were injured, some of whom remain in critical condition.
Mersinli was subdued at the school by staff and parents, but was stabbed during the altercation and died of blood loss at the scene.
A guidance counselor at the school was among those who subdued Mersinli. Speaking to local media, Ejder İ. noted that Mersinli was a problem student with a long history of incidents at the school.
“We were in constant contact with his family. He had a screen addiction. He did not want to come to school. Even when he came, he wanted to leave,” Ejder said.
According to statements given by his family, Mersinli had been receiving psychological support in the months leading up to the attack, with specialists reportedly noting that he struggled with difficulties in social adaptation. However, he had recently stopped attending sessions.
Following the shooting, a manifesto purported to have been written by Mersinli began to circulate on social media, along with screenshots from Discord servers he had been active in.
Mersinli was a fan of Japanese animated series Lucky Star, and had adopted the name “Konata” in reference to one of the cartoon’s major characters, Konata Izumi. A picture of Izumi appears on the first page of the manifesto, and Mersinli used pictures of Izumi on his Discord and Steam profiles.
“Konbanwa,” Mersinli begins the document, using a Japanese greeting, “I am Konata and Konata is me. I love her very very much. As of writing this, it is April 11th, 2026. By the time you are reading this, I am either in planning to do something big, have done something big or about to do something big.”
The manifesto continues by describing Mersinli’s desire to be “noticed” and that he feels he is “better than everyone around me intelligence wise.”
The document was leaked by an individual claiming to be Mersinli’s girlfriend. She censored the manifesto, which apparently contained some egregious racial and sexual slurs, and also added a footnote to the manifesto reading that Mersinli “was non-binary” and used “she/they/it” pronouns.
“She wanted to be remembered as ‘Konata’ because of a character from an anime she liked,” the footnote reads.
Mersinli’s girlfriend, who is located in Argentina, also made a TikTok video offering more details on their long-distance relationship, which she also described as “polyamorous.”
The girl admits that Mersinli had threatened repeatedly to commit the shooting in Discord conversations, but that she had written it off as a joke.
“It was a joke, at the start. We never took it seriously. Konata always said, ‘oh, I’m going to do a school shooting, ha ha ha.’ And we would say, ‘guys, smile, we will be in a documentary soon,'” the girl says, using feminine pronouns to refer to Mersinli. “She was both my and Victor’s girlfriend; we were in a polyamorous relationship. When we found out what had happened, we all cried. Neither Victor nor I wanted Aras to do this. We told her many times, ‘Please don’t do it, it’s not worth it.’ Our other friends said the same.”
The “third” partner in the polyamorous love triangle, referred to as Victor, also made a post on Mersinli lamenting his actions and death.
“RIP Konata, why would you do such a thing. I loved you I still do. I can’t even take off the cosplay you wanted me to do. Everything I eat tastes horrible. Why did you kill them, I hoped that you were kidding, you weren’t. I love you my sweet girl. I’m sorry the society failed you.”
Additional videos from Mersinli’s Discord account have since begun to circulate on Turkish social media. In one video shared with his Discord friends, he is seen modeling in a skirt and off-shoulder blouse. in other photos Mersinli distributed, he was seen posing while wearing components from his father’s police uniform.
Bilgisayarındaki notlarında kendisinden HE/SHE olarak bahseden Kahramanmaraş katili İsa Aras Mersinli'nin Trans eğilimleri olduğu ve canlı yayında etek giydiği kadın kıyafetleri giydiği görüntüler ortaya çıktı. pic.twitter.com/TrtbdPYjpJ
— CZR HBR (@czr_hbr) April 16, 2026
Mersinli appears to have been at least somewhat inspired by other school shooters, and Reduxx can confirm he had been using a photo of Isla Vista killer Elliot Rodger on his WhatsApp profile.
Mersinli’s girlfriend appears to have shared his fascination with school shooters, and had reposted romanticized, anime-style drawings of the Columbine shooters on her now-deleted TikTok profile.
While Mersinli’s motive is currently unknown, he appears to have harbored a tremendous resentment towards his father. In a leaked WhatsApp conversation Mersinli had with a friend, he accused his father of having sexually abused him when he was younger. In other messages sent on Discord, Mersinli alleged his father had been physically abusive towards him. None of these claims have been addressed or substantiated as of the publication of this article.
In recent years, the United States and Canada have experienced an escalating pattern of mass shooters who claim to identify as transgender. In February, Jesse “Jess” Strang fatally shot 10 people at a Tumbler Ridge secondary school prior to taking his own life. Just days later, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Robert Dorgan, who also went by the name Roberta Esposito, shot four family members and a family friend at a youth hockey game, killing two and injuring three others before killing himself.
Reduxx is your source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% independent! Support our mission by making a donation.
