Munich Shooting Rampage May Be Related To Anders Behring Breivik’s Shooting Massacre In Norway


After an 18-year-old German-Iranian opened fire near a shopping mall in Munich on Friday evening killing ten people, authorities are seeking to piece together a motive for the attack.

As of this morning, police said they had found no immediate evidence of an Islamist motive behind the Munich shooting.

Authorities had said it is too early to say if it was a terrorist attack, but as reported on the Inquisitr, it was a lone shooter involved, who initially opened fire in a fast food restaurant before moving into the Olympia shopping mall itself.

However, police investigating the shooting rampage now say there is an “obvious” link with the shooting massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway, which was carried out five years ago to the day of Friday’s attack. Breivik is a far-right terrorist who killed 77 young people in attacks in Norway back in 2011.

Investigators state that besides the anniversary date, there are several other connections between the two shooting massacres, including the young age of the victims. Eight of the nine victims were reportedly under the age of 20. Since then, the death toll has risen to 10.

According to a report by the Guardian, two victims were 13, three were 14, one was 17 and another 19 years of age. The remaining two victims were aged 20 and 45 years. Of the victims, six were reportedly male and three were female, and all were from the Munich area.

There was also the fact that, according to their investigations, the attacker had been extensively researching “rampages” or “mass shootings.”

As reported by CNN, the young gunman had documents relating to shooting rampages in his home. Police also took computers from the premises.

Police Chief Hubertus Andrae said at a press conference Saturday morning that the attacker in the Munich shootings was an 18-year-old student, born and raised in Munich. Andrae stressed that the gunman was “not connected with refugees at all.”

According to Andrae, the gunman had received treatment for mental issues in the past and investigators are still looking into his mental condition prior to the shooting rampage.

Reports state that the shooter was a student who had been bullied for several years. According to police he had been assaulted by three other youths in 2010 and again in 2012 and had been receiving psychiatric care.

According to the Guardian, there are unconfirmed reports that the killer may have set up a fake Facebook account under a female name, offering free food to lure young people to the McDonald’s restaurant in the Olympia shopping mall. Police are continuing to investigate these claims.

Besides the motive for the shooting, police are also investigating how the teenager acquired the 9-mm Glock 17 pistol used in the attack. The firearm was obviously illegal, as the serial number had been removed. Reportedly, the gun control system in Germany is described by the U.S. Congress Library as being “among the most stringent in Europe.”

While police have released the name of the gunman, his body was found on a side street close to the mall where he had shot himself. Andrae said the 18-year-old German-Iranian was not previously known to police.

On Saturday morning, police commandos with dogs raided an apartment in the Munich neighborhood of Maxvorstadt where the gunman reportedly lived with his parents.

As reported by Newsweek, Telfije Dalpi, a 40-year-old neighbor, said of the news: “I am shocked, what happened to the boy? Only God knows what happened,”

“I have no idea what happened – but he was a good human being. I have no idea if he did anything bad elsewhere.”

The street where the gunman used to live lies just north of Munich’s old city and saw a huge police presence on Saturday as the investigations continued.

According to Andrae, authorities say the latest incident is not in any way linked to last Monday’s brutal train attack by a 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker in southern Germany where five people were injured. That attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.

While apparently French President Francois Hollande had referred to the shooting as a terrorist attack, Andrae said it was premature to say whether the latest incident was a terrorist attack or the work of a deranged person.

As investigations continue, police are looking into a video in which the gunman can be heard shouting, “I am German” and reportedly exchanges racial slurs and profanities with another man.

“We are trying to determine who said what,” a police spokesman said.

Meanwhile, according to Andrae, at least 16 people, including several children, are in the hospital with three of them in a critical condition.

Today, Munich is grieving, with floral tributes left at the shopping center to honor the victims.

[Image by Johannes Simon/Getty Images]
Both incidents in Germany come in the wake of the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, France, where a Tunisian man killed 84 people, an act for which Islamic State later claimed responsibility.

[Photo by Jeorg Koch/Getty Images News]

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