Official: Bullied loner spent a year planning Munich attack

MUNICH — The teenager behind Friday’s deadly shooting rampage in Munich was a withdrawn loner obsessed with playing “killer” video games in his bedroom, a victim of bullying who suffered from panic attacks set off by contacts with other people, investigators said Sunday, adding that he had planned the attack for a year.

Law enforcement officials piecing together a portrait of the 18-year-old said he was seeing a doctor up to last month for treatment of depression and psychiatric problems that began in 2015 with inpatient hospital care and then was followed up with outpatient visits.

They said medication for his problems had been found his room. But toxicological and autopsy results were not yet available, so it’s not clear whether he was taking the medicine when he went on a shooting spree Friday, killing nine people and leaving dozens wounded.

The 18-year-old German-Iranian, identified only as David S. due to Germany privacy laws, had earlier been described by investigators as being bullied by schoolmates at least once four years ago and being fascinated by previous mass shootings. None of the bullies were among his victims, however, investigators said.

“He had been planning this crime since last summer,” said Robert Heimberger, Bavaria’s top official, citing a “manifesto” found in the gunman’s locked room in the apartment he shared with his parents and brother.

Weapons are strictly controlled in Germany and police are still trying to determine how the shooter obtained the Glock 17 used in the attack. Heimberger said it’s “very likely” the suspect purchased the weapon illegally online on the “darknet,” a restrictedaccess computer network often used by criminals.