Munich gunman ‘obsessed’ with mass killings

 

MUNICH, Germany (UPDATED) – The  teenager who shot dead 9 people in a gun rampage in Munich was “obsessed” with mass killers like Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik and had no links to the Islamic State group, police said Saturday, July 23.

Europe reacted in shock to the 3rd attack on the continent in just over a week, after 18-year-old David Ali Sonboly went on a shooting spree at a shopping center on Friday evening, July 22, before turning the gun on himself.

Officials said Sonboly, a German-Iranian student, had a history of mental illness. (READ: Munich mall shooting: What we know) 

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager had likely hacked a girl’s Facebook account and used it to lure victims to the McDonald’s outlet where he began his rampage.

“There is absolutely no link to the Islamic State,” Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said, describing the assault as a “classic act by a deranged person”.

Investigators see an “obvious link” between Friday’s killings and Breivik’s massacre of 77 people in Norway exactly 5 years earlier, Andrae added.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, in her first reaction to the carnage, said Munich had suffered a “night of horror”.

Most of the victims in Friday’s attack were young people, with 3 aged just 14, police said.

Prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch said Sonboly had suffered depression, while media reports said he had undergone psychiatric treatment.

The teenager had 300 rounds of ammunition in a rucksack when he targeted the busy Olympia shopping mall, just minutes away from the flat he shared with his family, according to authorities.

Tributes for victims

Grieving Munich residents laid roses and lit candles in memory of the victims, with one placard bearing the simple plea: “Why?”

“Bloodbath in Munich,” was the headline on the best-selling Bild newspaper.

Sixteen people were wounded in the attack, 3 of them critically.

An amateur video posted on social media appeared to show a man in black walking away from the McDonald’s restaurant while firing repeatedly with a handgun as people fled screaming. (READ: Panic and terror in Munich shooting rampage) 

A police patrol shot and wounded Sonboly but he escaped before police found his body, after an operation to track down what had initially been thought to be up to 3 attackers.

Terrifying scenes

Neighbors said Sonboly was born to Iranian parents, a taxi driver father and a mother who worked at a department store. (READ: Iran condemns Munich mall attack)

They lived in the well-heeled Maxvorstadt neighborhood in a tidy social housing block popular with immigrant families.

Neighbor Delfye Dalbi, 40, described him as a helpful young man who was “never bitter or angry”, though others remembered a quiet loner.

“All his body language said ‘I don’t want to talk to you,'” said Stephan, a waiter at the cafe on the ground floor of the housing block.

A police source cited by DPA news agency said Sonboly loved playing violent video games and was an admirer of the 17-year-old German who shot dead 15 people at his school near Stuttgart in 2009.

Survivors described terrifying scenes as shoppers rushed from the area, some carrying children in their arms.

“We entered McDonald’s to eat… then there was panic, and people ran out,” one woman told Bavarian television.

Another video appeared to show the gunman on a car park roof in a heated exchange with a man on a nearby balcony.

“I’m German, I was born here,” the assailant replied after the man fired off a volley of swear words, including an insulting term for foreigners.

Victims lured

De Maiziere told reporters that Sonboly had likely used a hacked Facebook account to lure people to the McDonalds branch, “offering them special reductions”.

“I will give you whatever you want, for not a lot of money,” the online invite read, according to German media reports.

The casualties were mostly young, with 3 aged just 14 and two aged 15.

Most of the victims in Friday’s attack were foreigners, including 3 Turkish nationals, 3 people from Kosovo and a Greek.

‘Europe stands united’

US President Barack Obama voiced staunch support for Washington’s close ally Germany, while EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said: “Europe stands united.”

Europe has been on high alert for terrorism after a string of attacks in neighboring France and Belgium claimed by IS.

The attack came just 4 days after a 17-year-old asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a train in Bavaria, injuring 5 people.

In France, a Tunisian used a truck on July 14 to mow down 84 people after a Bastille Day fireworks display in Nice, the 3rd major attack on French soil in the past 18 months.

Friday’s massacre spurred many in Munich to think the unthinkable.

“It has reached us. People in Munich have long had a queasy feeling. Fears grew with every attack in Paris, Istanbul or Brussels,” said the Abendzeitung newspaper’s editor-in-chief Michael Schilling.

“Since Friday it is clear that there can be no security anywhere, not even in the safest German city.” – Rappler.com