Searches revealed that the 18-year-old who was born and raised in the Bavarian capital had “looked intensively” at the subject of “shooting rampages”, police chief Hubertus Andrae told journalists.
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Officials said the attacker was not known to them and he had no criminal record.
Andrae tells a news conference that police have found no indications that anyone other than one shooter was involved.
On Friday, President Obama issued a statement of solidarity to the German people.
Munich police said the alleged attacker acted alone and killed himself when confronted by police.
Authorities had told the public to get off the streets as the city – Germany’s third biggest – went into lockdown with transport halted and highways sealed off.
Earlier police, citing eyewitness accounts, had said they were looking for up to three suspects in the shooting attack at the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre (OEZ) that sent shoppers running for their lives and shut traffic across the city.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the train attack.
He had a fascination with shooting rampages.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said her country is in “deep and profound mourning” after nine people were killed by a lone gunman on a rampage in Munich.
Germany’s Interior Ministry said Munich police had set up a hotline for concerned citizens. The shooter at one point yells, “I’m German”, to which the filmer responds, “You are a jerk”, and demands to know what is going on.
The men had notified police about their suspicion three hours before the police raid.
The mall is next to the stadium where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and later killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.
There was a huge police presence outside the gunman’s home just north of Munich’s old city.
Names of two other victims were said to be Sabina Sulaj and Armela Segashi. The first shots were reported at a McDonald’s restaurant opposite the mall.
Police will give an update on their investigation later on Saturday. Another video posted online showed a gunman emerging from the door of the McDonald’s, raising what appeared to be a pistol with both hands and aiming at people on the sidewalk, firing as they fled in terror. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.
The shopping centre, which opened in the 1970s and bills itself as Bavaria’s biggest, was surrounded by armed police, while a helicopter buzzed overhead. “But mostly it was surprisingly calm”, said Elena Hakes, wearing a blue traditional dress, who had been with a friend in the Odeonsplatz square.
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The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84.
