[ad_1]
Whereas there aren’t any indications of the gunman having a terrorism-related background, native authorities did obtain an nameless message in January that raised alarm over the 35-year-old man’s hatred of his former employer and non secular teams, notably the Jehovah’s Witnesses, of which he was a member till round 18 months in the past.
The message raised questions over whether or not the person — who had legally bought a semiautomatic handgun on a sports activities shooter license — was mentally match to personal a firearm. Investigators who subsequently checked the person’s house in February, nonetheless, didn’t discover any proof to justify revoking his license, police mentioned Friday, whereas acknowledging these despatched had not been skilled to identify indicators of psychological sickness.
A particular police unit that arrived inside minutes of the primary emergency calls Thursday night time, as a result of it occurred to be situated close by, is prone to have prevented much more deaths, officers mentioned Friday. Round 50 individuals had gathered within the congregation Thursday night time.
German officers mentioned there are various accounts of whether or not the gunman left the Jehovah’s Witnesses voluntarily in 2021 or whether or not he was expelled from the group. The U.S.-based religion group claims 8.7 million adherents in its congregations, generally known as Kingdom Halls, worldwide and about 170,500 members in Germany. The corridor focused Thursday night time is situated in a residential space in northern Hamburg, Germany’s second most populous metropolis.
In a tweet, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — who till 2018 served as mayor of Hamburg — mentioned the useless and injured had fallen “sufferer to a brutal act of violence final night time. My ideas are with them and their kin.”
Condolences additionally poured in from overseas, together with from French President Emmanuel Macron and the U.S. State Division, which mentioned it strongly “condemns the mindless act of violence.”
In a press release, the German Jehovah’s Witnesses group mentioned that “our deepest sympathy goes to the households of the victims and the traumatized eyewitnesses. The native ministers are doing their finest to assist them on this tough hour.”
Within the Hamburg police information convention on Friday, native officers described how some victims appeared to have been shot whereas chatting with emergency dispatchers.
Investigators discovered 9 empty magazines able to holding 15 rounds every on the crime scene, whereas the gunman carried further ammunition in his backpack. At their information convention on Friday, officers mentioned they might not say with certainty whether or not the massive variety of magazines discovered on the scene and on the gunman’s house had been legally bought.
The taking pictures comes because the German authorities is drafting a brand new legislation that might place harder checks on firearm homeowners within the nation. Regardless of comparatively strict gun legal guidelines, Germany has a excessive per capita ratio of legally bought firearms.
Whereas mass killings are uncommon, there have been a lot of high-profile incidents lately that raised questions over loopholes in security checks, together with a racially motivated assault through which 9 individuals with migrant backgrounds had been killed in February 2020.
The attacker was capable of buy his firearms legally, regardless that a subsequent investigation discovered proof of a extreme psychotic sickness.
Authorities mentioned the gunman began taking pictures outdoors the Jehovah’s Witness corridor, injuring a girl who managed to flee in a automotive.
Gregor Miesbach instructed German tv information company NonstopNews that he heard over 25 photographs and noticed an individual enter the constructing by means of a window, earlier than opening fireplace inside.
A close-by resident, Lara Bauch, mentioned she heard 4 rounds of gunfire Thursday night time. Inside every spherical, photographs had been fired “at intervals of 20 seconds to a minute,” she instructed German information company DPA.
Police discovered a number of individuals useless and others with gunshot wounds after they arrived on the constructing round 9:15 p.m. native time, Hamburg police spokesman Holger Vehren mentioned in interview from the scene Thursday night time.
After arriving on the corridor, police heard one final gunshot from throughout the Jehovah’s Witness constructing and located a physique after they adopted the sound, Vehren mentioned.
Footage from the scene initially made authorities imagine that there could also be two shooters, prompting a large-scale manhunt in and round Hamburg, however authorities later mentioned they imagine the gunman acted alone.
Maham Javaid, Amar Nadhir and Kate Brady contributed to this report.
[ad_2]