Police investigator Robert Heimberger said it appeared he had hacked a Facebook account and lured people to the shopping centre with an offer of free food.
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The gunman shot himself about half a mile from the shopping centre, but his body was not found for about two and a half hours after the incident began at about 6pm local time.
He had left a letter and a video on YouTube which De Maiziere said was a “classical farewell video” of a suicide attacker from the Islamic State jihadist group (IS).
A search of the shooter’s room unearthed a document about “frenzied attacks” and a book called Rampage in Head: Why Students Kill. They say they are continuing to actively look for suspects.
Andrae also asserted that the crime and the perpetrator had “absolutely no” link to the issue of refugees. Breivik is a far-right terrorist who killed 77 young people in attacks in Norway back in 2011.
Andrae, the police chief, said the nine fatalities included young people; children were among the 16 wounded, three of whom were in critical condition.
“It appears it was prepared by the suspect and then sent out”, Heimberger said. German media reported Merkel cut short a vacation in the Alps to chair a national security meeting.
The gunman, whose body was found on a side street near the mall, was not identified but Andrae said he was not previously known to police.
She said a video shot by a witness shows the shooter’s exchange with a heckler during the attack.
A neighbour speaking to a local broadcaster reportedly described the gunman as “very, very nice”.
A sign reading ‘Why?’ and flowers are placed on on a wall near the Olympia shopping mall, where yesterday’s shooting rampage started, in Munich.
Wishing to only give his first name, Stephan, an owner of a coffee shop near to where Sonboly lived, said: “He only ever said “hi”.
“He never came in to the cafe”, he added.
“He never came in to the café”, he added.
The attacker used a 9 mm Glock 17 pistol that was likely obtained illegally, because the serial number had been scratched off, and was found with about 300 rounds of ammunition in his rucksack, police said.
He also discounted earlier fears that there were up to three gunmen involved in the attack that were triggered by two bystanders fleeing in a vehicle at “considerable speed”.
-8:11 p.m. Police write on Facebook that “witnesses report three different people with guns”.
“I was standing on the balcony smoking a cigarette”. “He was a bit chubby, and he was either by himself or together with one or two people, but he seemed to have hardly any friends”.
Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, described the attack as “cruel and inhumane”, Reuters reports, and said the government is giving security and intelligence services the support they need to investigate.
Authorities have said Munich is returning to normal. Twenty-seven people were hospitalized, including four with gunshot wounds, said Andrae.
Munich’s mayor, Dieter Reiter has declared a day of mourning for the victims of “this bad act”.
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“These are hard hours for Munich”, he said, adding that the city’s citizens had shown great solidarity toward each other.
