Munich gunman visited site of school massacre

THE teenager who shot dead nine people at a Munich shopping mall last Friday spent a year planning the rampage but selected his victims at random, German officials said yesterday.

Using a 9mm handgun, the German-Iranian shot dead nine people, a lot of them fellow teenagers, before killing himself with a shot to the head.

Sonboly was said to be a keen player of “first-person shooter” video games.

“There is a suspicion that the 16-year-old is a possible tacit accomplice to [Friday’s] attack”, police said in a statement Sunday, reported by broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Investigators said the Munich shooter had researched that slaughter online and had visited the site of a previous school shooting in the German town of Winnenden a year ago. He said medication had been found at his home but that investigators needed to talk with his family to determine whether he had been taking it.

It is thought he may have been inspired by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people five years prior to the Munich shootings.

Sonboly was described as mentally-disturbed and a victim of bullying, who told classmates in the past that one day he would “kill them all”.

Police said the unstable teen had no ties to ISIS or any terrorist groups, carrying out the attack from his obsession with mass shootings.

“He completely occupied himself with this act of rampage”, Heimberger said.

The Bavarian State Crime Office said he had bought the illegal pistol used in the attack on the internet.

Evidence shows he took his own life.

Most of the victims in Friday’s attack were foreigners, including three Turkish nationals, three people from Kosovo and a Greek man.

“The suspect had fears of contact with others” and also depression.

Heimberger said the parents of the gunman remained in shock and were not able to be interviewed.

He said the weapon had been rendered unusable and sold as a prop before being restored to its original function. Sonboly had been treated for mental illness in the past, and his mental state at the time of the attack, and the months leading up to it, are unknown.