Helinikan Christmas mass shooting

The Helinikan Christmas Mass Shooting, sometimes referred to as the Christmassacre, was a terrorist attack on the population of Nonesapol carried out by the Tilennan , Livio Erimaekes. The attacker targeted the in the city-centre during the annual  ceremony on 24 December 2011. He entered the church fully-armed and started shooting immediately in a manic rage. In total 76 people were killed and more than 200 injured of which 39 permanently handicapped. Most of the victims were Helinikan citizens, only 2 of the deadly victims were tourists from Mursland that were visiting family for. Livio got immediately prosecuted and received a life sentence by Helinikan authorities, sparking a diplomatic conflict between Helinika and Tilenno.

Anti-Christianity in Tilenno
Christian discrimination has been a long-running problem within the Tilennan Federation. Ever since the departure of the colonial forces of Ovancia in 1744, relations between the Lonàkean and populations have been tense. Tilenno has known a 240 year long genocide of Christians between 1744 and 1982 in which they were systematically opressed. The scars of this repression can still be felt in the nation today and are long from being completely healed. Many people are therefore against the growing normalisation of the traditions and customs, especially in places like Central and South Gantes.

Anti-Christian sentiment is rampant in the southern regions of Gantes, where Livio is from. Stories about families being harassed and bullied out of these towns are not uncommon. Especially after the Osorra-Tilenno War which destroyed the region, violent behaviour towards these groups has only been on the increase.

Personal life of Livio Erimaekes
Livio Erimaekes was born in 1966 in Saechires, Tilenno. In 1981 his city was nuked during the Osorra-Tilenno War by the leader of Osorra, Gervasii Orlov. He was evacuated in time, but his mother never made it out alive and his father died at the front line of the war. He has never forgiven the Osorrans for what they did to his hometown and family. He spent the rest of his youth and early adulthood in the nearby city of Bores with his aunt and her family. After the war his adolescence was a troublesome period. He was prone to rebelling and often got involved with the wrong people. He also often lashed out at his aunt and uncle. In 1992 he got officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, explaining his mood shifts and manic and depressive episodes.

Livio was known by Tilennan intelligence agencies and law-enforcement for a longer time for multiple incidents in the past, none of which were deadly however. In 2008 he disturbed a public in Saint-Martin and protested against the growing  influence. He was quickly captured by the police and removed from the event. Later that same year he tried to commit arson on the buildings of the Christian Youth Movement,. The attempt was prevented by an accidental passer-by who chased him away with his German Rottweiler. This led to him getting sentenced to 120 hours of public service and a permanent ban from the city-state of Martones.

In 2009 he joined an online Christian hate group in which he shared videos of himself harassing Christians in the Northern regions. Often he waited at the exit of churches on sunday to then throw buckets of liquid butter and sugar on them. This came forth out of the Tilennan slur for Christians "Butter Creams" in reference to the Ovancian pastries that often accompanied Christian events. Slowly his attacks became more and more extreme, with multiple charges of aggravated assault on his record. At some point he went to a wedding and vigorously beat the bridal pair until they both had to be transported to the ER.

Helinikan Holiday
In 2011 Livio decided he had had it with Christian holidays and wanted to leave to Federation to not be confronted with Christians during this period. He chose a destination at random, some accounts talk about him throwing a dart at a world map, while some just claim he just got the cheapest flight that went far enough. This lack of research would come to bite him later when he discovered that Helinika in fact is a very religious Orthodox Christian nation that celebrated even more intensely than Tilenno.

Upon discovering this he went into a mental breakdown and completely smashed up his hotel room. He got kicked out of the hotel and drunkenly stumbled the streets of Nonesapol. There he met some East-Keshi underground criminals in a back-alley bar. They told him about the Nonesapol harbour black market, which among other things sold dangerous firearms that were normally hard to obtain. The next day he went there and picked up an Ak-47 and multiple magazines worth of ammunition.

Shooting
At exactly 10:32 PM Livio entered the church and fired his first shot in the direction of the church choir. It was in the middle of the Christmas mass right during the song. It hit the left arm of one of the choir member. Immediate panic arose as people tried to flee the building. But Livio who was standing at the entrance used this chaos to mow down on the crowd, killing dozens of people and wounding many others. Gunshots were heard across the entire city centre and the police was alerted immediately, although it would take another 15 minutes for them to arrive with full back-up. The panic calmed down as people were trying to hide from the attacker and waited for the police to arrive. In the meantime Livio gave some speech of which the content is unknown as none of the victims were able to understand his Tilennan. He slowly walked around the church slowly killing fearful Christians one by one, apperently laughing during the process.

Police Arrival
The police arrived at the scene at around 10:45 PM, about 15 minutes after the start of the shooting. As the shooting had stopped for the most part, the Helinikan law-enforcement tried to negotiate with Livio. Communication however went troublesome as they had no mutual language to communicate in, except broken. Eventually Livio had a mental breakdown and fell on the floor crying. The police stormed the church and immediately captured him and locked him away in jail, awaiting his trial.

Victims
In total 76 people were killed during the attack. Most of the victims were Helinikan citizens that lived in the neighbourhood of the Church. 73 were killed on the spot, while 3 died in the following weeks as a result of their injuries. Among them was famous Helinikan novelist. 247 people were admitted to the hospital. 201 of them were Helinikan, of which 3 would later die. The other 46 were of various nationalities of mainly neighbouring states like Propyrgia and Poja. It took up to a week for all victims to get identified and families notified.

Mursian Tourists
The only non-Helinikan deaths was a couple from Mursland Borislaw and Trishka Padapersi from Borini, near Plovina. They were visiting family for Christmas and joined them in the evening mass. They sat at the back of the church, making them one of the first victims of the attack.

Prosecution
Livio Erimaekes was captured on the spot and his trial took place only 3 days after the event occured, in a surprising shock of Helinikan efficiency. However Tilenno was trying to force the Helinikan government to extradite him to his homeland where he would be prosecuted based on the laws of Tilenno. Helinika downright refused and prosecuted him there anyway. Livio was offered a state-appointed attorney, but from reports of the trial it was clear he was heavily biased towards giving him as high of a punishment as possible.

The result of the trial was Livio Erimaekes being condemned to capital punishment and was set to be publicly executed the following week. This sparked outrage with the Tilennan government and citizens as this would in their eyes absolve Livio from the human suffering he had to endure before he could move on to the Lonàkean afterlife. Once again the Tilennan government demanded him being returned to his homeland and even threatened with economic and legal sanctions against Helinika if it didn't comply. eventually a compromise was reached in which Livio had to sit out a life-long sentence in Helinika. After the 30 required years he would be returned to Tilenno to then endure the continuation of his punishment.

Helinikan Memorial Service
On 28 December a public memorial service was held in Nonesapol. More than 100,000 people showed up for the service and more than a million watched the live broadcast. 3 days of national grief were announced in Helinika. The president gave a speech at the ceremony in which he expressed his grief and anger towards the situation and proclaimed hope that religious freedom will at some point become an universally treasured value.

Plovina Silent March


On the 29 December a silent march was held in the city-centre of Plovina in Mursland for the death of the Mursian couple, Borislaw and Trishka Padapersi from the nearby town of Borini. While the population of Mursland was shocked by the event, the government stayed bizarrely silent on the attacks. It didn't want to raise the tension between Tilenno and Helinika and the Mursian goverment has had a past of not caring about Mursians in foreign countries.

Statue in Bores
In Bores an illegal statue was erected for Livio Erimaekes that still stands there to this day. The local and federal authorities have stayed silent on this fact as they didn't want to spark conflict in Tilenno itself. The statue is 5 meters high and made from cast steel covered in a thin layer of leaf gold. The statue has often been criticised from non-official outlets for promting hate towards other religious groups, something that is illegal under the current constitution. Nevertheless the statue has a majority support from the inhabitants of Bores where almost no Christians reside.

Tilennan Travel Restrictions
After the attack Tilennan travellers face tighter travel restrictions towards Helinika and have a harder time obtaining visas. In some cases people were even asked to write a three page motivation letter for their holiday in the nation. Tilennan citizens often get picked out for random security checks at Helinikan airports and get treated very harshly. In the first months after the attcak all flights between Hireno and Drachyro were cancelled and Tilennans were prohibited from entering the nation for 3 months.