The gunman who has been identified as Ali David Sonboly, an 18-year-old German-Iranian, has no criminal record they said.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel called a special meeting of her government’s security Cabinet, meeting Saturday with de Maziere, other ministers and the head of the country’s security agencies. Police said he had no links with Islamic State.
In the killer’s room, police found a German translation of a book entitled Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters, by the United States academic Peter Langman. The others were 20 and 45, the police chief said.
A search at the shooter’s family apartment on Saturday turned up reading material about mass murderers, including right-wing fanatic Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway exactly five years ago.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said: ‘The fifth anniversary of the Breivik massacre ought to be considered as a motivation’.
Munich police spokeswoman said six people were killed and an undetermined number wounded.
Robert Heimberger, head of Bavaria’s criminal police, said the gunman had been planning the attack since he paid a visit past year to the town of Winnenden – the scene of a previous school shooting in 2009 – and took photographs. Earlier, they had said he may have hacked another person’s account, but they clarified on Sunday that it was an entirely fake account set up in another person’s name.
The shooter had received medical treatment for mental issues, a police official said Saturday in a press conference, and investigators are still looking into his mental condition.
Both the Wuerzburg attack, and the Bastille Day rampage by a truck driver in Nice, France that killed 84 people on July 14, were claimed by Islamic State militants. He is believed to have acted alone.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear, as the suspect’s death note has not been found so far.
Police said the gunman’s body was found about 1km from the mall.
Munich’s police chief has urged the media to respect the privacy of those affected by the attack on Monday, when schools reopen.
“I was standing on the balcony smoking a cigarette. I’ve never seen him going off, never heard if he had any problems with the police or neighbors”. And I thought to myself: ‘This is it. The first reports came at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT), the shooting apparently began at a McDonald’s in the shopping center. He then traveled to a summer camp for young left-of-center political activists on the island of Utoeya, where he killed another 69 people.
“Documents on shooting sprees were found so the perpetrator obviously researched this subject intensively”, Andrae said. Twenty-seven people were hospitalized, including four with gunshot wounds, said Andrae.
As Munich struggled to return to normal Saturday, Mayor Dieter Reiter declared a day of mourning for the victims of “this bad act”.
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Merkel said the generosity of Munich residents showed that “we live in a free society and it showed humanity”, adding that “our greatest strength” lies in these values. “Our city stands united”, he said.
