Details began to emerge yesterday about 21-year old college student – Cheng Jie – who allegedly killed four aboard a moving metro train in Taipei Wednesday.

Some accounts describe him as a loner who had spoken of plans for doing “something big.”

Cheng, a sophomore studying environmental engineering, transferred last September to Dong-hai University after not being allowed to continue his studies at the National Defense University, because he failed half of his courses there.

Reports have claimed Cheng’s parents told police their son spent most of his free time playing violent video games online and had few friends.

Despite those claims, Cheng’s schoolmates remember him as a regular kid, though they say he showed a  particular interest in violence – with one classmate telling local media he once killed a turtle and put the dead animal on display in a classroom.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Jiang Wei-ling yesterday said Cheng had been put on an observation list by his university after he hinted at his actions on his Facebook page weeks earlier.

According to Jiang,  the university had a counseling session with Cheng on May 9th after being informed of his Facebook posts in which he said he would “do  something big.”

The word “hack” reportedly appeared in the post some 20 times.

Speaking during a legislative hearing, the education minister said the university concluded Cheng’s case did not  involve a highly dangerous situation and decided to continue to observe his performance and planned another counseling session with him.

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