Gunman streamed synagogue attack

Suspect used head-mounted camera to broadcast assault

BERLIN — A gunman killed two people outside a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle on Wednesday, apparently filming his attack on a head-mounted camera in a method that had chilling echoes of a far-right attack on two New Zealand mosques earlier this year.

At the beginning of the 35-minute video, a man in a green jacket that matches eyewitness accounts introduces himself as “Anon.” He denies the Holocaust and lists what he sees as the world’s problems, including feminism that leads to low birthrates and immigration.

“The root of all these problems is the Jew,” he says in the video, which was streamed on the gaming site Twitch and shared with The Washington Post by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization.

The man swears repeatedly and apologizes to his video audience as his plan appears to go awry, at points blaming his homemade weapons.

When a locked door keeps him from gaining entry to the synagogue packed with worshipers for Yom Kippur, he shoots a woman in the street and a man at a nearby kebab shop.

German authorities said they had one suspect in custody and were investigating a video.

A German security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, confirmed that the gunman had recorded the attack on a head camera.

The official said the suspect was a 27-year-old from Benndorf, Germany, who was not known to police or intelligence and claimed he was acting alone.