MONSTER OBSESSED WITH MASS MURDERS
Munich killer inspired by Norway fiend, lured vics with McD’s ploy
The 18-year-old who gunned down nine people in Munich on Friday was obsessed with mass shootings and chose the fifth anniversary of a massacre in Norway to carry out his own brazen attack.
Ali David-Son boly was a depression-plague d teen who avid ly read about rampage killings.
Authorities said Saturday they were investigating reports that he had tried to lure young victims to their deaths through a fake Facebook post offering free food at the McDonald’s where he launched the massacre.
Witnesses indicated that his hatred of foreigners might also have played a role in the bloodbath, even though he himself was the German-born son of Iranian asylum-seekers.
Law-enforcement officials think the attack could be a copy-cat of Norwegian Anders Breivik’s 2011 slaughter of 77 mostly young people five years before to the day. Sonboly used the same type of Glock semiautomatic handgun as Breivik.
“The link is obvious,” said Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae.
But where right-wing fanatic Breivik had warped political motivations, officials said there were “no indications whatsoever” Sonboly had such ties.
“We are talking about a perpetrator without any political background,” said Munich prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch.
The shooting spree was initially described by police as an act of “suspected terrorism,” suggesting a political motive. And some witnesses claimed that Sonboly, who was born and raised in Munich, had shouted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” as he targeted his victims.
But Andrae described the heinous assault as a “classic act by a deranged person.” Munich’s top cop added, “There is absolutely no link to the Islamic State.”
While officials were cautious about reports Sonboly had undergone psychiatric treatment, it appeared the teen
had a history of mental illness.
And there were indications the killer had been bullied. Stories emerged about other students holding Sonboly down and painting his face with makeup. He was also ejected from an online videogame community after making death threats.
“We kicked him out of the gaming group over a year ago, because he always threatened us,” a classmate told the Sunday Times of London. Sonboly reportedly left an audio message telling members of that group to come to the McDonald’s he targeted.
In a cellphone video of a shouting match with a witness in the midst of the shooting spree, Sonboly said, “Because of you, I was bullied for seven years, and now I have to buy a gun to shoot you.”
He had no criminal record, but had been a victim of theft in 2010 and assault in 2012, police said.
Shortly before he struck, Sonboly told his family that he had failed his end-of-school exam. He then headed to the McDonald’s, not far from the apartment he shared with his parents and brother. There, he gunned down his first four victims. Then he crossed the road to the Olympia shopping center, sending shoppers scrambling as he took five more lives.
Most of the victims in the attack were young people, with three aged just 14, and all but three were male, police said. The violence also left 27 people injured, in- cluding 10 critically.
Sonboly turned his weapon on himself about a half-mile away from the scene amid a manhunt that locked down Germany’s third-largest city for hours. His body was found with a backpack that contained 300 rounds of ammunition. The gun had its serial number scratched out, suggesting it was purchased illegally. Sonboly was not the registered owner.
Investigators seized electronics from the teen’s room, and found a stash of newspaper articles on mass killings and a copy of a book on the psychology of school shooters chronicling sprees like Columbine and Virginia Tech. He had also researched Breivik and a 2009 school shooter in Germany.