Munich Shooter Planned Attacks For A Year, German Authorities Say

Investigators have found documents in the Munich attacker’s home that confirm that he suffered from mental illness, including depression and anxiety, Munich prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch said Sunday.

Sonboly – who Heimberger said was an avid fan of first-person shooter games such as “Counter-Strike Source” – even visited the spot of a previous school shooting in Winnenden, Germany, and took pictures.

Following the deadly attack in Munich that left 10 dead, including the gunman, police have been searching for a motive for what lead the 18-year-old German-Iranian to go on the shooting rampage.

He then entered the Olympia Einkaufzentrum shopping centre where he continued his rampage with more than 300 bullets for ammunition.

Police say they are still trying to verify a series of mobile phone videos of the shooting, which have been screened by German media and which show the panic in the shopping centre when the gunman opened fire.

The teenager apparently tried to lure his victims to a McDonald’s restaurant, the initial site of the shooting, with a freakish message on a hacked Facebook page, promising free meals to anyone at the venue at 4pm.

Being originally from Iran, meaning a Shia Muslim, the 18-year-old who perpetrated the violence is extremely unlikely to have been an adherent of Daesh, a fundamentalist Sunni outfit of the Tafriki variety and at war with the Shias.

“I’m German, I was born here”, the black-clad assailant replies after the man swore at him, using curse words for foreigners.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, also a member of Merkel’s Democrats, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in a separate interview that he planned to review German gun laws after the attack, and seek improvements where needed.

Further details were not immediately available late Sunday, but Germany’s dpa news agency reported that the 16-year-old boy had gone to police himself after the deadly rampage.

The shooter had bought the pistol for the attack on the “dark net”, an area of the internet accessible only via special software, according to the crime office of the federal province of Bavaria.

“The biggest priority is to combat the illegal arms trade since that could also reduce crime and terrorism”, he said in a statement on Sunday.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the tragedy had plunged Germany into “deep and profound mourning”.

The posting, sent from a young woman’s account, urged people to come to a fast-food outlet in the mall at 4pm, saying: “I’ll give you something if you want, but not too expensive”.

Among the dead were two 14-year-old Kosovan girls, Armela Segashi and Sabina Sulaj, and their Turkish friends Can Leyla, 14 and Selcuk Kilic, 15, according to reports.

“In extreme situations – like for example the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels – we should also be able to call upon the Bundeswehr in Germany”, he said.

Mr Heimberger said it appears “very likely” that the suspect purchased the weapon online through the so-called “darknet”. The Munich shootings occurred on the fifth anniversary of the Norway massacre.

“It’s unusual, but he never spoke with us”, said Ali, who regularly played football with the gunman’s brother in a nearby park.