- Philipp F had a permit to possess the weapon for sports purposes.
- The gunman was seen on video firing through a glass.
- Seven people were killed in Thursday’s attack.
A man who killed seven people in Germany was visited by police last month after a tip raised concerns about his mental state.
He cooperated with officers, and there were not enough grounds to take away his pistol at the time, according to police.
The 35-year-old suspect, identified only as Philipp F, had a permit to possess the weapon for sports purposes.
According to the interior minister, the country is preparing a new law that will tighten restrictions on gun ownership.
Seven people were killed in Thursday’s attack at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting hall in the city, including an unborn baby.
The initial emergency contact came in at 21:04 local time (20:04 GMT) reporting shots fired, and officers arrived four minutes later.
The gunman was seen on video firing through a glass. He then rushed to the premises, where hundreds of people had gathered, blasting nine magazines of ammo before turning the rifle on himself when police arrived.
A woman who was seven months pregnant was among the eight injured. She lived, but her unborn child died.
According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the death toll could grow.
According to German Senator Andy Grote, “fast and decisive” steps” by police personnel saved several lives. He called the incident the “worst crime” in recent Hamburg history.
Officials said the suspect had “ill feelings” towards the religious community, of which he had previously been a member before leaving “on bad terms”.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a Christian-based religious movement that began in the United States around the close of the nineteenth century.
According to the movement’s most recent report from 2022, there are over 8.7 million Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide, with approximately 170,000 in Germany. There are thought to be about 4,000 members in Hamburg.
On Friday, Hamburg Police Chief Ralf Martin Meyer said officers visited the man in February after they received an anonymous letter claiming he “bore particular anger toward religious believers, in particular toward Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
The letter also said he “might be suffering from a mental illness, although it had not been medically diagnosed”.
Police said he was cooperative and had an open conversation with the officers. “The bottom line is that an anonymous tip in which someone says they’re worried a person might have a psychological illness, isn’t in itself a basis for [such] measures,” Chief Meyer said.
Forensic experts worked at the scene of the shooting on Deelböge street through the night but have since left the area.
Floral tributes have been laid near the front entrance by mourners. One man, cradling his young son and daughter, told the BBC that he tried to return home last night but was stopped by police armed with assault rifles.
Germany already has some of Europe’s tightest gun rules, including a requirement that anybody under the age of 25 undergo a psychological evaluation before obtaining a license.
According to the National Firearms Registration, there will be approximately one million private gun owners in Germany by 2021. They are responsible for 5.7 million legal firearms and firearm parts, the majority of which are owned by hunters.
Following major arrests in December in connection with an alleged coup plan, German authorities have been under pressure to tighten the country’s firearms restrictions even more.
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