People react by flower tributes near to the Olympia shopping center where a shooting took place leaving nine people dead the day before in Munich, Germany, on July 23, 2016.(Photo: Jens Meyer, AP)
The teenager who shot and killed nine people at a Munich mall planned the attack for at least a year and had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>received psychiatric treatment,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>officials said Sunday.
“He had been planning this crime since last summer,” said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Robert Heimberger, head of Bavaria's police.
The shooter, identified by local media as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>German-Iranian<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ali David Sonboly, 18, had visited the site of a 2009 school shooting in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the town of Winnenden last year and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>took pictures, then he started planning<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Friday's shooting spree, Heimberger, said, according to the Associated Press.
USA TODAY
German officials urge tightening of already strict guns laws
No evidence indicates the gunman<span style="color: Red;">*</span>knew any of his victims<span style="color: Red;">*</span>or had any political motivation behind the attack that also wounded 35 people, said Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, spokesman for the Munich prosecutors’ office.
He said the suspect had received both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatment last year to help deal with depression and “fears of contact with others,” the AP reported. Medication was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>found at the teen's home, but investigators don't know yet whether he had been taking it, Steinkraus-Koch added.
Sonboly had spent two months at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an inpatient facility in 2015 and was treated afterward as an outpatient, Steinkraus-Koch said.
The suspect, who had a Glock pistol and more than 300 bullets, killed himself after the attack<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that took place at a McDonald's and nearby<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Olympia shopping mall, according to BBC. His parents were in shock and haven’t yet been interviewed by police.
Sonboly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>also a fan of “first-person shooter” video games, including<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
Counter-Strike: Source,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Heimberger said, according to AP.
Heimberger said it was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“very likely” the suspect purchased the weapon illegally online. It was a pistol that had been rendered unusable and sold as a prop, then was restored to fully function, the AP reported.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Its serial numbers were filed off, and Sonboly had no permit to purchase weapons, authorities have said.
Senior German politicians have called for tighter gun control.
USA TODAY
Police: Munich shooter fascinated by mass killings
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Saturday that the teen<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was fascinated with mass killings, particularly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an attack<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Norway<span style="color: Red;">*</span>five years ago Friday by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>anti-immigrant Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people, many of them teenagers at a youth camp.
Friday's attack was the second one in less than a week in Bavaria<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that targeted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>victims at random.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker wounded five people in an ax-and-knife rampage on a train near Wuerzburg, and the Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
Powered By WizardRSS.com |
Full Text RSS Feed
