July 23, 2016
MUNICH: A lone gunman shot nine people and wounded 16 others
on Friday at a Munich shopping mall which was earlier described as “suspected
terrorism.” The German police said later that the attack was not related to the
Islamic State terrorism and that the shooter killed himself.
“We found a man, who killed him himself. We assume, that he
was the only shooter. #gunfire #munich,” the German police tweeted.
However, according to a CNN report, a witness said the gunman
shouted “Allahu Akbar” as began the shooting spree.
The gunman was identified as Ali David Sonboly, an 18-year-old
Iranian-German with dual citizenship from Munich. Reports said he was wearing
black clothes.
The police said in a televised press conference on CNN that nearby
clinics were being checked for more fatalities.
Munich’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said the transit system
was closed upon the incident and reopened after the gunman’s death was
confirmed.
Ali Sonboly opened fire first at a McDonald's and then at Olympia-Einkaufszentrum
shopping centre, in a crowded Munich shopping mall.
The gunman Sonboly continued firing even outside the mall too, killing more
people as they were running. He loaded his gun in the bathroom and started
shooting, said an eyewitness. His body found half a km away over two hours after.
It was identified through closed circuit television footage.
It is said that shooter Sonboly hacked into a Facebook account and lured his
victims to the Olympia shopping centre on offer of free snacks. The shooter’s
victims are mostly children and young people. Three of the dead were Turkish and
one was Greek.
He lived in a fifth-floor apartment in a middle class Munich suburb of Maxvorstad
with his parents near the main railway station. His father was a taxi driver and
mother was a department store worker, according to the Telegraph. The parents
came to Germany from Iran in the late 1990s.
Police found literature on mass shootings at his home. A book,
“Rampage in Head: Why Students Kill” was among them.
Dr Peter Langman, the author of Why Kids Kill, the book which was found among
Ali Sonboly's possessions told The Telegraph he was "distressed" at the thought
the book was being used in the wrong way. Sonboly had the German translation of
the book released in 2009.
The killer Ali Sonboly has been described by various people of his neighbouhood
as "intelligent, quiet and shy,” "typical teen," "quiet, didn't talk much" and "wasn't religious". He was a Shia caste and so probably not ISIS. However, once not long ago the shooter Sonboly had told his classmates he wanted to carry out a
massacre and "I will kill you all." One nieghbour said he had psychological
problems but another said there was no evidence. Ali Sonboly had also threatened
to kill his friends in posts on the video gaming network Steam. Sonboly was
"obsessed" with video games, German newspaper Bild reported. Several were found
in his house. He had issued death threats to other players. Therefore it is being
speculated that the latest evidence suggests there were warnings Sonboly was
preparing to carry out a mass killing. Sonboly was "obsessed" with mass shootings
and may have planned the attack to coincide with the fifth anniversary of far-right
extremist Anders Breivik's Norway massacre, according to prosecutors. He had used
an image of Breivik as his profile picture on WhatsApp. Some reports suggest he
was bullied at school and Sonboly reportedly said he was bullied for seven years.
Sky news reported Sonboly was having psychiatric treatment.
In fact, there was bandobast around the mall since Monday when
a young man shouted “Allahu Akbar!” and attacked rail passengers in Wurzburg
with an axe. Five of them were wounded. He was an Afghan citizen. The ISIS
claimed responsibility for the attack.
A crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice in France last
week was run over by a truck by one Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel, a
Tunisian.
US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted,
“Another attack, this time in Germany. Many killed. God bless the people of
Munich.”
