MUNICH, Germany, July 24 (UPI) — The gunman who killed nine people at a Munich mall Friday planned the attack for one year and visited the site of a 2009 Germany school massacre, officials said Sunday.
The shooter, identified as David Ali Sonboly, 18, by the German media, also received two months of psychiatric treatment last year and played shooting video games, including Counter-Strike: Source, according to Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, a spokesman for the Munich prosecutor’s office.
Investigators found a digital camera with photos he visited the site of a high school massacre in Winnenden, southern Germany, where 15 people died before the 17-year-old gunman committed suicide.
Sonboly also turned his gun on himself.
He likely obtained his weapon, a 9mm pistol, illegally via the dark web, Bavarian investigator Robert Heimberger said.
“At the crime scene 58 shells were found,” he said. “From those, 57 were from the weapon of the attacker. The 58th one [belonged] to the police. Because of that it is a matter of exclusively one individual offender.”
Investigators have found no evidence that he wasn’t politically motivated to commit the crime and he didn’t target specific victims.
He received inpatient psychiatric treatment in 2015 for two months. “The suspect had fears of contact with others” and depression,” Steinkraus-Koch said.
Investigators are now discounting previous statements that the shooter had researched the massacre in Norway by Anders Breivik, which took place on the same day in 2011.
German politicians urged tighter gun legislation Sunday even though they are among the most restrictive in the world. Applicants under 25 must undergo a series of tough checks, including whether the person has a history of mental health issues.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain that the “the arms control is an important point. We must continue to do everything possible to limit access to lethal weapons.”
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere also suggested strong laws and told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper the “intolerable degree of violence glorifying games on the Internet also have a detrimental effect on the development of young people.”
Of the 80 million Germans, only 2.3 million legally own guns in Germany, {link:according to GunPolicy.org.
Since the 2009 attack at the school, there had not been a mass shooting of four or more people killed in a single event in the country.
