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Munich Shooting: Lone Gunman Planned Attack for One Year

The 18-year-old high-school student from Munich with Iranian and German citizenship also wounded more than two dozen others Friday night before turning his illegal Glock 17 pistol on himself.

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Police have arrested a 16-year-old on suspicion of knowing about the Munich shooting spree carried out by deranged loner Ali Sonly and failing to report it.

But past year, Sonboly visited the town of Winnenden and took pictures, said Robert Heimberger, head of Bavaria’s police, according to The Associated Press.

The suspected attacker’s body was later found about one kilometer from the mall where the shootings took place, German DPA news agency reported.

Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, spokesman for Munich prosecutors’ office said there is still no evidence of any political motivation to the crime, nor that the shooter killed specific victims.

Mr Steinkraus-Koch said Sonboly spent two months in a closed psychiatric ward in 2015 and received treatment for “social phobias” and anxiety. Police found medication in his home and are trying to determine whether he had been taking it.

Already steeped in grief and shock, Germans were further rattled by news that a Syrian refugee had killed a 45-year-old Polish woman with a machete in the south-western city of Reutlingen.

Peter Langman says young gunmen are often looking for role models, and described the Munich attack as premeditated.

Heimberger said it’s “very likely” the suspect purchased the weapon illegally online on the “darknet”, a restricted access computer network often used by criminals.

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. Around 1 a.m., police said the gunman was dead.

Asked if the gunman had deliberately targeted young people, Munich police chief Andrae said that theory could be neither confirmed or ruled out.

The gunman, who hasn’t been named officially as yet, killed nine people and himself on Friday around a mall in Munich.

German authorities said Sonboly had no links whatsoever to any Islamist groups.

According to German police, the attack was probably politically motivated.

Officials said the attack left another 27 people wounded – 10 of them with serious injuries.

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Three victims were from Kosovo, three from Turkey and one from Greece.

Munich gunman has no ties to Islamic State, police chief says