German Police See No ISIS Connection in Munich Massacre
The German-born shooter was obsessed with mass killings
The 18-year-old man who killed nine people near a Munich shopping mall Friday before taking his own life was obsessed with mass shootings, spent his days playing violent video games, and had been bullied at school. But German police on Saturday said it appears he drew no inspiration from Islamist militancy, and that all signs indicate he acted alone.
The 18-year-old man who killed nine people near a Munich shopping mall Friday before taking his own life was obsessed with mass shootings, spent his days playing violent video games, and had been bullied at school. But German police on Saturday said it appears he drew no inspiration from Islamist militancy, and that all signs indicate he acted alone.
The attack is the latest in a string of deadly assaults to rock Europe in just over a week’s time. The shootings come five days after an Afghan teenager wounded five people with a knife in southern Germany, and a week after 84 people in Nice, France were killed by a Tunisian immigrant driving a truck. The two previous attacks are thought to have at least been inspired by the Islamic State.
The German-born shooter in Munich — identified by German media as Ali David Sonboly — was a son of Iranian parents who fled to Europe in the 1980s, who he lived with in an apartment in the city. German police raided the family’s apartment Saturday morning after finding Sonboly dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“Based on the searches, there are no indications whatsoever that there is a connection to Islamic State” or to the issue of refugees, Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said at a news conference. “Documents on shooting sprees were found, so the perpetrator obviously researched this subject intensively.”
The rampage, which wounded 27 people, took place on the fifth anniversary of a massacre in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist who killed 77 people. Andrae told reporters that “this connection is obvious” and “we must assume that he was aware of this attack.”
Breivik’s killing spree began by detonating a bomb in the capital Oslo before gunning down 69 at a summer camp for young aspiring political activists on the island of Utoya. He subscribed to extreme right-wing views, and later said the attack was meant to curb Muslim immigration to Europe.
It is still unclear exactly what motivated the Munich killer, but one video taken during the attack shows him pacing on a flat roof, shouting “I’m German” at the person filming. “I was born here,” he said. “I grew up here in a Hartz IV area,” making reference to a form of unemployment, suggesting he was from a lower strata of society.
Photo Credit: SVEN HOPPE/AFP/Getty Images
Paul McLeary was a staff writer at Foreign Policy from 2015-2018.
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