Shooter radicalized?

Automatically saved draft

(Bild: APA/AFP)

Following the suspected terrorist attack in the center of Munich, investigators have questioned around 100 witnesses about the crime, according to a spokesman for the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation. The special commission (Soko) Karolinenplatz has not yet found any further evidence to support the investigators' "working hypothesis" that the 18-year-old Austrian shooter was motivated by Islamism or anti-Semitism, the LKA spokesman said.

The approximately 100 officers of the Soko were hoping to gain further insights into this by analyzing the Austrian's cell phone. The device had apparently been damaged during the exchange of fire with the police, but could be recovered. However, the LKA spokesman said it was still unclear how much data could still be read out.

The shooter was an 18-year-old Austrian.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

Israeli Consulate General and NS Documentation Center shot at
According to police, the 18-year-old, who most recently lived in Salzburg's Flachgau region, fired nine shots with a Swiss army carbine in Munich's city center on Thursday - including at the Israeli Consulate General and the Nazi Documentation Center. The shooter died after an exchange of fire with the police.

Pictures from the crime scene: 

Suspect probably radicalized Islamist 
The Munich Public Prosecutor General's Office assumes that the attack was a terrorist attack, partly because of the location near the consulate and the date, the anniversary of the 1972 Olympic bombing. Findings by the Austrian police indicated that the 18-year-old could have been radicalized by Islamists.

The Salzburg public prosecutor's office had investigated him the previous year for terrorist association (§278b StGB). His cell phone had been confiscated after he made a dangerous threat against fellow pupils and caused bodily harm. During searches, videos with Islamist propaganda were found. However, in the opinion of the investigators, the offense of participation in a terrorist organization was not fulfilled.