Munich police say attacker not linked to Islamic State

Gunman identified as German-Iranian was obsessed with mass killings

MUNICH: The gunman who shot dead nine people in Munich has been identified as a German-Iranian teenager ‘obsessed with mass killings’ and drew no inspiration from Islamist militants, police said on Saturday.

According to them, the 18-year-old ‘born and raised locally’ was the lone gunman in the attack at busy shopping mall on Friday evening in which a further 27 people were wounded, some seriously. Seven of his victims were themselves teenagers, who police said he may have lured to their deaths via a hacked Facebook account on what was the fifth anniversary of twin attacks by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik that killed 77 people.

Bavarian state crime office president Robert Heimberger said the gunman, who German media named as Ali David Sonboly, was carrying more than 300 bullets in his backpack and pistol when he was later found dead of a gunshot wound.

Following a police search of the attacker’s room, where a book on teenage shooting sprees was discovered, Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae all but ruled out an Islamist militant link in the attack.

“Based on the searches, there are no indications whatsoever that there is a connection to Islamic State” or to the issue of refugees, he told a news conference. “Documents on shooting sprees were found, so the perpetrator obviously researched this subject intensively.”

The gunman was born and brought up in the Munich area and had spent time in psychiatric care, and there was no evidence to suggest he had an accomplice, Andrae said. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it was also too early to associate the Munich shootings with Breivik.

Robert Heimberger, president of the Bavarian state criminal agency, told the news conference police were investigating findings suggesting the Munich gunman invited people to a fast food restaurant at the mall via the Facebook account.

The Munich gunman had no criminal record but had been a victim of theft in 2010 and assault in 2012, police said. De Maiziere said there were indications the killer had been bullied ‘by others his age’.

Police commandos raided an apartment where a neighbour said the gunman had lived with his parents for about four years. In the killer’s room, police found a book titled ‘Why Kids Kill - Inside the Minds of School Shooters’.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said there were several signs he had been suffering from “not insignificant psychological troubles.” Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was ‘mourning with a heavy heart’ for those killed, and that the security services would do everything to ensure the public was safe. Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer said the killings should not be allowed to undermine democratic freedoms.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2016.