Wildfires spread near L.A., Big Sur
The gunman whose rampage at a Munich mall left nine people dead was a depression-plagued teenager who avidly read books and articles about mass killings and apparently tried to lure young victims to their deaths through a faked Facebook posting, authorities said Saturday.
Information from witnesses indicated that his hatred of foreigners might have played a role in the shooting, even though he was the German-born son of Iranian asylum-seekers.
Most of the dead were youths and all were Munich residents of varied ethnic backgrounds. Hueseyin Bayri, who witnessed one boy’s death, said the shooter screamed a profanity about foreigners and said, “I will kill you all” as he pulled the trigger. A video of the perpetrator also showed him yelling antiforeigner slurs.
The 18-year-old high school student from Munich with Iranian and German citizenship also wounded more than two dozen before turning his illegal Glock 17 pistol on himself.
Police told reporters that a search of the red backpack lying next to his body revealed that the shooter was carrying more than 300 rounds for the 9-millimeter handgun he used. The filed-off serial numbers of the Glock made it difficult to establish its origin. But investigators said the gunman, identified by officials only as David S., had no permit to carry it.
One victim was 45 years old, another 20 and the rest were between 14 and 19, Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said. The fact that most of the dead were young added to what Chancellor Angela Merkel called “an evening and night of horror.”
It started as a normal Friday evening. A Munich mall was buzzing with shoppers, and across the street, customers were enjoying a meal at a McDonald’s restaurant.
Earlier that day, the shooter hacked a Facebook account and sent a message inviting people to come to the mall for a giveaway, said Robert Heimberger, the head of Bavaria’s criminal police.
Investigators say they are still looking for a motive for the attack, but Munich prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch noted the gunman apparently was undergoing psychiatric treatment for problems including depression. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said authorities were checking reports the teen may have been bullied by his peers.
Police did not offer details on the victims’ ethnicities, but Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said two were Kosovo Albanians after arriving in Munich on Saturday to express his condolences.
Law enforcement officials think the Munich tragedy could be a copy-cat attack, considering it was carried out on the fifth anniversary of the killing of 77 people by Norwegian rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, whose victims included dozens of young people.
A search of the shooter’s home revealed a trove of literature about mass killings, including a German-language translation of the English
The temperature in Mitribah, Kuwait, surged Thursday to a blistering 129.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and the mercury soared to 129 degrees Friday in Basra, Iraq. If confirmed, these measurements would represent the two hottest temperatures ever recorded in the Eastern Hemisphere, according to Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters and weather historian Christopher Burt, who broke the news.
It’s also possible that Mitribah’s reading matches the hottest temperature ever reliably measured in the world. Both Mitribah and Basra’s readings are likely the highest ever recorded outside of Death Valley, California.
Death Valley currently holds the record for the world’s hottest temperature book “Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters.” De Maiziere said the shooter had researched a 2009 school shooting in Germany as well as the Breivik attack.
But there was no evidence that he was linked to extremist groups such as the Islamic State group, law enforcement officials told reporters, adding they believe the gunman acted alone. of 134.1 degrees, set July 10, 1913. But Burt does not believe it is a credible measurement.
“[T]he record has been scrutinized perhaps more than any other in the United States,” Burt wrote. “I don’t have much more to add to the debate aside from my belief it is most likely not a valid reading when one looks at all the evidence.”
If the Death Valley record is discarded, Mitribah’s reading Thursday would tie the world’s highest known temperature, also observed in Death Valley on June 30, 2013, and in Tirat Tsvi, Israel, on June 22, 1942.
Air temperatures of about 100 degrees combined with astronomical humidity levels have pushed heat index values, which reflect how hot the air feels, literally off the charts in the Middle East.
In Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, the dew point, a measure of humidity, reached 90 degrees Thursday. The dew point combined with the air
Merkel called a special meeting Saturday of her government’s security Cabinet and pledged afterward that Germany would “do everything possible to protect the security and freedom of all people,” saying that, in the wake of a train attack near Wuerzburg and the truck attack in Nice, she understood Germans are wondering, “Where is safe?” temperature of 97 degrees computes to a heat index of over 140 degrees.
That combination is so extreme that it’s beyond levels the heat index is designed to measure. The index is intended to compute values up to only about 136 degrees.
Wildfires burned out of control Saturday in mountains north of Los Angeles and near Big Sur on California’s scenic Central Coast, posing a threat to 2,000 homes and a sanctuary for exotic animals that was being evacuated, authorities said.
The fire in northern Los Angeles County grew to more than 17 square miles, spreading smoke across the city and suburbs, reducing the sun to an orange disk at times. Containment was estimated at just 10 percent. The fire was a threat to 1,000 homes by Saturday afternoon, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.
About 300 miles up the coast, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighters battled a nearly 3-square-mile blaze in mountains north of the Big Sur region. The blaze 5 miles south of Garrapata State Park posed a threat to about 1,000 homes and the community of Palo Colorado was ordered evacuated, Cal Fire said.