Hamburg Mass shooting: Police received anonymous tip on shooter before he committed the crime

Hamburg: Police in Hamburg have admitted receiving an anonymous tip that the mass shooter had a history of displaying hostility towards religious organisations and might be mentally unfit to possess a firearm.

Eight people were injured, including a woman who was 28 weeks pregnant and lost the baby, when a shooter broke into a service at his old Jehovah’s Witness congregation. And it is feared that the death toll might increase.

According to witnesses and authorities, officers arrived in the hallway while the assault was still going on and heard one more shot after they got there.

Although they did not use their weapons, authorities claimed that their intervention probably saved more lives.

With the exception of two injured ladies who were citizens of Uganda and Ukraine, all of the victims were German citizens.

According to authorities, the shooter was a 35-year-old German citizen who went by the name Philipp F in accordance with the privacy laws of his home country.

The suspect left the congregation about a year and a half ago, “voluntarily but evidently not on good terms,” according to the police.

Police claim that the man had a semi-automatic Heckler & Koch Pistole P30 pistol that was lawfully his.

He fired more than 100 shots during the assault, and according to Ralf Peter Anders, the director of the Hamburg prosecutor’s office, hundreds more rounds were discovered in the man’s apartment.

Police visited the man, according to Hamburg Police Chief Ralf Martin Meyer, after receiving a tip in January that claimed he “bore special anger towards religious believers, in particular towards Jehovah’s Witnesses and his former employer.

According to Mr. Meyer, the officers claimed that the individual was cooperative and that there was no justification for taking his weapon.

The bottom line, he said, is that an anonymous report that expresses concern that a person may be suffering from a psychological condition isn’t sufficient justification for (such) measures.

Germany has stricter gun regulations than the United States, but they are comparatively lax compared to some of its neighbours in Europe, and shootings are not unheard of.

At Heidelberg University, an 18-year-old student opened fire in a crowded lecture hall last year, killing one individual and injuring three others before taking his own life. In January 2020, a man shot and killed six people in southwestern Germany, including his parents. A month later, a shooter who killed nine people nearby Frankfurt after going on a racist internet tirade.

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day for Jews, in Halle, Germany, in October 2019, a far-right extremist tried to force his way into a synagogue. This was the most recent shooting involving a place of worship. He attempted to enter but was denied, so he shot two adjacent victims to death.

Last year, the German government made plans public to tighten background checks and clamp down on suspected extremists’ access to firearms.

Currently, anyone seeking to purchase a weapon must demonstrate their suitability for doing so, including by demonstrating their need for a firearm. Being a hunter or a member of a sports shooting group are two possibilities.

On Friday morning, outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Hall, a boxy, three-story structure next to a car repair shop, a few miles from downtown Hamburg, forensic detectives in protective white suits could be seen.

Officers marked evidence with yellow cones on the ground and window sills as light snow drifted.

A special operations squad that just so happened to be nearby the hall, according to Hamburg’s top security official, arrived minutes after getting the initial emergency call at 9.04 p.m. The police were able to distinguish the shooter from the congregation.

We can presume that they saved many lives in this manner, according to Andy Grote, the interior minister for the state of Hamburg.

After hearing a shot from a higher floor, where they discovered a fatally wounded person who may have been the shooter, officers discovered people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, according to police spokesman Holger Vehren.

According to student Laura Bauch, who resides nearby, there were roughly four periods of shooting, according to the German news agency dpa. There were frequently multiple bullets during these times, she remarked.

Ms. Bauch claimed that as she peered out of her window, she noticed someone running up the hall from the ground level.

Gregor Miebach, who resides nearby and can see the structure, heard gunfire and captured video of a figure entering the structure through a window. Then, shots can be heard coming from inside in his video. Later, the figure is said to have left the hallway, appeared in the courtyard, and discharged more shots through a window before the lights in the space went out.

According to Mr. Miebach, he heard at least 25 gunshots, according to German television news service NonstopNews. He claimed that one more shot was fired after the police came.

Dorte Miebach, his mother, expressed shock over the killing. She claimed that it was only 50 metres from her home and that numerous people had perished. “This is still a mystery to me. We are still struggling to accept it.”

A global religion that was established in the United States in the 19th century includes Jehovah’s Witnesses. It claims to have 8.7 million members globally, including 170,000 in Germany.

Members are well-known for their evangelistic activities, which included door-to-door canvassing and pamphlet distribution in public places. They reject the use of force, blood transfusions, national flag salutes, and participation in democratic government.

Jehovah’s Witnesses members “globally grieve for the victims of this traumatic incident,” according to David Semonian, a US-based spokesman for the organisation.

He added, “The congregation elders in the neighbourhood are offering pastoral care for those impacted by the event.

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