Gunman kills 6 in Germany at Jehovah’s Witness service

HAMBURG, Germany — A gunman stormed a service at his former Jehovah’s Witness hall in Germany, killing six people before taking his own life after police arrived, authorities in the port city of Hamburg said Friday.

Police gave no motive for Thursday night’s attack. But they acknowledged recently receiving an anonymous tip that claimed the man identified as the shooter showed anger toward Jehovah’s Witnesses and might be psychologically unfit to own a gun.

Eight people were wounded, including a woman who was 28 weeks pregnant and lost the baby. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the death toll could rise.

Officers apparently arrived at the hall while the attack was happening and heard one more shot, according to witnesses and authorities. They did not fire their weapons, but officials said their intervention likely prevented further loss of life at the boxy building next to an auto repair shop a few miles from downtown.

Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, said the city was “speechless in view of this violence” and “mourning those whose lives were taken so brutally.”

All of the victims were

German citizens apart from two wounded women, one with Ugandan citizenship and one with Ukrainian.

Officials said the suspected assailant was a 35-year-old German man identified only as Philipp F., in line with the country’s privacy rules. Police said he had left the congregation “voluntarily, but apparently not on good terms” about a year and a half ago.

A website registered in the name of someone who fits the police description said that he grew up in the Bavarian town of Kempten in “a strict religious evangelical household.”

The website, which is filled with business jargon, also links to a self-published book about “God, Jesus Christ and Satan.”

Philipp F. legally owned a semi-automatic Heckler & Koch Pistole P30 handgun, according to police. He fired more than 100 shots during the attack, and the head of the Hamburg prosecutors office, Ralf Peter Anders, said hundreds more rounds were found in a search of the man’s apartment.

Germany’s gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States but permissive compared with some European neighbors, and shootings are not unheard of.

The German government announced plans last year to crack down on gun ownership by suspected extremists and to tighten background checks. Currently, those who want to acquire a firearm must show that they are fit to do so, including by proving that they require a gun. Reasons can include being part of a sports shooting club or being a hunter.

Hamburg police Chief Ralf Martin Meyer said the man was visited by officers after they received an anonymous tip in January, claiming that he had “particular anger toward religious believers, in particular toward Jehovah’s Witnesses and his former employer.”

Officers said the man was cooperative and found no grounds to take his weapon, according to Meyer.

“The bottom line is that an anonymous tip in which someone says they’re worried a person might have a psychological illness isn’t in itself a basis for (such) measures,” he said.

Germany’s top security official laid a wreath of flowers outside the hall to commemorate the victims.

Asked whether the attack could have been prevented, Interior Minister Nancy Faser said it was necessary to wait for the investigation to conclude, but she acknowledged that changes were needed in the way background checks are conducted and information is exchanged between authorities.

She said a bill now making its way through the legislative process would require gun owners to undergo psychological tests.