Officials received tip about man's rampage
BERLINE » Weeks before he opened fire on his former congregation at a Jehovah's Witness hall in northern Germany, authorities got a tip that he “harbored a special rage” toward religious groups, officials said Friday. But when they checked on him, they said, they determined they did not have grounds to seize his weapons.
The gunman killed six people, including a pregnant woman, before turning his weapon on himself as police stormed the building in Hamburg on Thursday in what authorities called “the worst such mass shooting incident of this dimension” to affect the city. Eight people were wounded, four of them severely.
In keeping with German privacy laws, the police identified the gunman only as Philipp F., a 35-year-old German who, according to authorities, had been a member of the congregation until a year and a half ago, “but apparently did not leave on good terms,” said Thomas Radszuweit, the head of state security in Hamburg.
Mass shootings are extremely rare in Germany, where regulations limit who can own a weapon and make training and testing compulsory before a gun can be purchased. Fully automatic weapons are considered “weapons of war” and are illegal.
In January, authorities responsible for weapons control received a letter saying that Philipp F. “harbored a special rage against members of religious groups, especially the Jehovah's Witnesses,” Radszuweit said.
Several weeks after receiving the letter, authorities sent an unannounced team to Philipp F.'s home to inspect whether he was securing his weapons and ammunition in a safe, as required by law, and to speak with him.
They said that he had been open and cooperative and, with the exception of one stray bullet outside the safe, that everything was in order. They gave him a verbal warning.
The law in Germany also limits authorities' ability to take steps to remove weapons from an owner who is licensed to possess them. In the case of Philipp F., because the letter was written anonymously and provided no evidence, there was little authorities could do, officials said.
The German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, traveled to Hamburg on Friday to speak with the police, visit the site and offer her condolences. She also used the opportunity to reiterate the need to tighten gun laws.