Authorities: Munich gunman planned rampage for a year
MUNICH — The teenage gunman who killed nine people in a rampage in Munich had been treated for depression and paranoia and appeared to have begun planning the attack about a year ago, the German authorities said on Sunday.
The gunman, Ali Sonboly, who was the 18-yearold son of Iranian immigrant parents and held both German and Iranian citizenship, had sought refuge in the internet, where he immersed himself in a violent video game and the so-called darknet of encrypted networks, through which the authorities suspect that he acquired the pistol used to carry out the attack.
Mr. Sonboly appeared to have begun planning the attack after visiting the site of a 2009 school shooting in Winnenden, Germany, in which 15 people were killed, initial evidence gleaned from his computer showed.
“We found a manifesto of his, in which he considers such attacks,” said Robert Heimberger, the chief of the Bavarian State Criminal Police. “From photos we found on a digital camera, we know that he visited the site and took pictures there.”
Mr. Sonboly was “obsessed with that attack,” Chief Heimberger said.
Later on Sunday, the Munich police said they had arrested a 16-year-old Afghan on suspicion of knowing about the planned attack but failing to inform the authorities.
The Afghan teenager, who was not further identified, was a friend of Mr. Sonboly’s and went to the police on Friday night and was questioned. But after searching the teenager’s home, the police found conflicting information, leading them to detain the young man.
Although most of the victims in Friday’s shooting were also teenagers from the Munich area, the police and prosecutors said they had found no links between them and the gunman. The victims were three 14-year-olds, two 15year-olds, and individuals ages 17, 19, 20 and 45.
The shooting occurred at the Olympic mall, in a neighborhood to the west of downtown Munich. The count of those injured had risen to 35, including several who were injured elsewhere in the city in the panic that followed, officials said.
Thomas SteinkrausKoch, the spokesman for the Munich prosecutors’ office, said initial evidence had not indicated any kind of political motivation for Mr. Sonboly’s attack.
Instead, it appeared that Mr. Sonboly used a Facebook account opened in May under a false name, or the name of a real girl who was not involved in the shooting, to invite people to the McDonald’s across from the mall, promising free food. Five of the nine victims were found inside the fast food restaurant, two others on the sidewalk in front, one in front of an electronics market and one inside the shopping mall. None of the victims were schoolmates of the gunman or appeared to have responded to the invitation over social media.
“None of those named in the commentary under the posting were among the victims,” Chief Heimberger said.
Some reports have identified the gunman as David Ali Sonboly, but neighbors who lived in his apartment building said he was known to everyone as Ali. His parents remained too distraught to question, Chief Heimberger said.
Chief Heimberger stressed that officials had only begun their investigation, but that evidence collected so far painted a picture of a mentally disturbed teenager obsessed with mass shootings and first-person-shooter video games, including CounterStrike: Source.
Medical records showed that the gunman had received inpatient psychiatric treatment for two months in 2015 and continued to be seen on an outpatient basis, said Mr. Steinkraus-Koch. Prescription medication for treatment of depression was found in Mr. Sonboly’s home, Mr. Steinkraus-Koch said, but it was not clear if he was regularly taking the medication.
Following a brief altercation with the police, the gunman turned his refurbished Glock 17 pistol on himself, firing a bullet into his head, Mr. SteinkrausKoch said. The pistol was a former theater weapon that had been restored to be capable of shooting live rounds.