German Police: Aggressor in Munich attack inspired by right-wing extremist Breivik, not Islamism

The attack during which a shooter killed nine people and then himself yesterday in Munich, Germany was apparently not politically motivated. Hubertus Andrä, the Munich Police Chief, said at a press conference today that 27 people were also injured during the attack, 10 of them seriously.

Andrä said the investigation to date has found no evidence that the attacker was connected with either radicals from the so-called Islamic State (IS) or with refugees. What has been proven, however, is a clear connection between the attack and the crime committed by Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people exactly five years ago.

Apparently yesterday’s shooter was interested in the topic of mass murder before committing his own crime. “There is absolutely no connection with the Islamic State here,” Andrä said.

The Munich Police Chief went on to say the attack was “a classic crime of a furious shooter” who was not acting out of political inspiration. Among the shooter’s effects police found a book called Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters.

Andrä said the attacker was probably obsessed with the topic of shooters and their attacks. According to police, the attacker wanted to imitate Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik.

Yesterday marked exactly five years since Breivik killed 77 people in Oslo and on the island of Utoya. Munich Prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch noted that the perpetrator “suffered from a certain kind of depression”.

“This is about a form of depression, a disease,” he said when asked whether the attacker had sought psychiatric treatment as some German media outlets had reported prior to the press conference. Police Detective Robert Heimberger then told the press that reports of the attacker misusing the account of a particular Facebook user to attract victims to the scene are true.

The attacker spread the information that something would be happening at the McDonald’s restaurant on Friday at 4 PM. “I’ll give you something if you want and it won’t be very expensive,” the message read.

The owner of the Facebook profile has reported that her account was hacked and misused. The scene of yesterday’s attack was the area in front of the McDonald’s near the Olympia shopping center.

Mayor of Munich Dieter Reiter announced a day of mourning today in Munich for the victims and expressed “shock over this horrible crime” and sympathy for the family and friends of the victims. The attacker is reported to have held dual citizenship of Germany and Iran.

Andrä said today that the attacker was born and grew up in Munich. According to German Interior Thomas de Maiziére, the attacker was originally a member of the Shiite community of Muslims but may have converted to Christianity.

The attacker fired a semiautomatic pistol during the attack for which he had no license, according to prosecutors. Most of his victims were young people.

One victim was 45 years old, but the rest were between 13 and 21 years of age. The fatalities were seven males, the shooter included, and three female.

Greek authorities confirmed that one victim was a citizen of Greece. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has also announced that three of the victims were Turkish citizens.

Prishtina has confirmed that three young Kosovo Albanians, two women and a 21-year-old man, were among the dead. The press conference in Munich said none of the victims were tourists.