Teenage friend of Munich killer arrested in Germany

The 18-year-old lone gunman began shooting at a McDonald’s restaurant at the Olympia shopping centre near Munich’s Olympic stadium, triggering a lockdown in the Bavarian state capital.

The teenage killer who went on a deadly shooting rampage in Munich had been planning the attack for more than a year and over that period spent two months in a clinic for psychiatric treatment, German authorities said.

However, he appeared to have planned the assault with chilling precision, with Bavarian police chief Robert Heimberger telling a press conference yesterday that Sonboly had visited the site and taken photos during a year of preparation.

A further 35 people were injured.

“There is a suspicion that the 16-year-old is a possible tacit accomplice to [Friday’s] attack”, a police statement said.

Legislation was tightened still further after school shootings in Erfurt in 2002, when 16 people were killed, and Winnenden in 2009, which left 16 people dead. They include purchasing the pistol he used on the Dark Net.

According to prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, the gunman, who German media named as Ali David Sonboly, was not motivated by a political ideology and chose his victims randomly.

In the aftermath of Friday’s attack, Bavaria’s top security official urged a constitutional change to allow the country’s military to be able to be deployed in support of police during attacks.

“At the crime scene 58 shells were found”, he said.

“He completely occupied himself with this act of rampage”. Two other Kosovars were wounded in the shooting rampage. Instead, a picture is emerging of a depressed outsider who was obsessed with mass shootings, launching his attack on the fifth anniversary of the massacre carried out by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway.

A search of his belongings revealed he was also an avid player of first-person shooter video games, including “Counter-Strike”, officials said Sunday. At 4pm he posted a message from a fake Facebook account offering free food to people who came to the McDonald’s near the mall.

Earlier authorities said they were probing reports that the gunman deliberately targeted youths in a revenge attack after years of bullying and harboured hatred against foreigners.