USA TODAY International Edition
GERMAN OFFICIALS URGE TIGHTENING OF STRICT GUN LAWS
Teenage shooter obtained Glock firearm illegally
The teenager who shot and killed nine people at a Munich mall planned the attack for at least a year and had received psychiatric treatment, officials said Sunday.
“He had been planning this crime since last summer,” said Robert Heimberger, head of Bavaria's police.
The shooter, identified by local media as German- Iranian Ali Da- vid Sonboly, 18, had visited the site of a 2009 school shooting in the town of Winnenden last year and took pictures, then he started planning Friday's shooting spree, Heimberger, said, according to the Associated Press.
No evidence indicates the gunman knew any of his victims or had any political motivation behind the attack that also wounded 35 people, said Thomas Steinkraus- Koch, spokesman for the Munich prosecutors’ office.
He said the suspect had received both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatment last year to help deal with depression and “fears of contact with others,” the AP reported. Medication was found at the teen's home, but investigators don't know yet whether he had been taking it, Steinkraus- Koch added.
Sonboly had spent two months at an inpatient facility in 2015 and was treated afterward as an outpatient, Steinkraus- Koch said.
The suspect, who had a Glock pistol and more than 300 bullets, killed himself after the attack that took place at a McDonald's and nearby Olympia shopping mall, according to BBC.