They added there was no evidence that any of the dead were lured to the McDonald’s branch by promises of discounts that Sonboly had sent out from a fake Facebook account, an act Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has described as “particularly underhand”.
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As both sides readied their talking points on an issue that has roiled Germany in the last year, a different picture of the shooter emerged: an 18-year-old with a history of being bullied, who was reportedly receiving psychiatric treatment and had an apparent obsession with mass shootings.
He had planned his attack for a year and chose his victims at random, according to investigators.
The Munich shooter began planning the attack one year ago after visiting the site of the 2009 shooting that killed 15 people, the president of the Bavarian state crime office Robert Heimberger told reporters. Other victims were aged 17, 19, 20 and 45 years.
Sunday’s explosion happened just outside a bar in Ansbach city centre, not far from where more than 2,000 people had gathered for the concert, at around 10:00 pm (2000 GMT). In France, where scores have been killed in six extremist attacks since the beginning of 2015, the Eiffel Tower was lit in the German national colors of red, black and gold.
The gunman was also evidently inspired by Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, and likely deliberately staged the shooting on the fifth anniversary of Breivik’s massacre of 77 people, Heimberger said.
Chief of staff Peter Altmaier said that chancellor Angela Merkel was being “constantly briefed” on developments in Munich and will convene the German security council on Saturday in Berlin.
He said Sonboly was a keen player of “first-person shooter” video games.
He said medication had been found at his home but that investigators needed to talk with his family to determine whether he had been taking it. It was a pistol that had been rendered unusable and sold as a prop, then was restored to fully function, the AP reported.
Tearful mourners were pictured clutching each other outside the Olympia shopping mall on Sunday, where grief-stricken Germans have laid flowers in memory of those who were tragically killed.
“Today, I feel deep sadness”, said Veljo Raicevic, a resident.
“Some of the kids who died happened to be my son’s friends”, she said.
Three people were also injured in the attack, which ended when the 21-year-old assailant was hit by a BMW.
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Hermann said he was anxious “the right to asylum would be undermined” by the events of the past week, which has seen attacks on a train and shopping mall in the southern German state. She was not wounded.
