Official: Shooter was a loner

Associated Press

MUNICH

The teenager behind the deadly shooting rampage in Munich was a withdrawn loner obsessed with playing “killer” video games in his bedroom, a victim of bullying who suffered from panic attacks set off by contacts with other people, investigators said Sunday, adding that he had planned the attack for a year.

Law-enforcement officials piecing together a portrait of the 18-year-old shooter said he was seeing a doctor up to last month for treatment of depression and psychiatric problems that began in 2015 with inpatient hospital care followed by outpatient visits.

They said medication for his problems had been found in his room. But toxicological and autopsy results were still not available, so it’s not yet clear whether he was taking the medicine when he went on his shooting spree Friday, killing nine people and leaving dozens wounded.

The 18-year-old German-Iranian, identified only as David S. due to Germany privacy laws, had earlier been described by investigators as being bullied by schoolmates at least once four years ago and being fascinated by previous mass shootings. But none of those killed were known to him, investigators said.

Late Sunday, police said they had taken in for questioning a friend of the shooter who might have known of the attack plan. More details were not immediately available, but Germany’s dpa news agency reported the 16-year-old boy had gone to police himself after the act.

Some 1,500 people gathered at the scene of the shooting Sunday evening, lighting candles and placing flowers in tribute to the victims.

The attack Friday took place on the fifth anniversary of the killing of 77 people by Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, whose victims included dozens of young people. 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 last year.

“He had been planning this crime since last summer,” said Robert Heimberger, Bavaria’s top official, citing a “manifesto” linked to the shooting found in the gunman’s locked room in the apartment he shared with his parents and brother.

Heimberger said he could not reveal details of the document yet because there were “many more terabytes” of information to evaluate, but described the gunman as a “devoted player” of group Internet “killer games” pitting virtual shooters against each other.

Weapons are strictly controlled in Germany, and police are still trying to determine exactly how the shooter obtained the Glock 17 used in the attack.