2024-09-06 13:26:15
There were several shootings in Munich. The suspect was shot by the police. Who was the armed man in front of the NS Documentation Center?
On Friday morning, police shot down an armed man in a shootout near the Israeli Consulate General and the Nazi Documentation Center in Munich. He was seriously injured and later died on the spot, said Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann. Some details about the suspect have now become known.
The suspect who was killed is said to be 18-year-old Emra I. from Austria. He is said to have Bosnian roots and lived with his parents in the Salzburg region. In the evening, the police searched his parents’ house. The license plate of the car in which the man traveled to the crime scene is also said to have been registered in the Salzburg region.
The Austrian press agency APA reports that the man was previously known to the authorities in the area of Islamism. According to the report, he was reported in 2023 for alleged proximity to the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS). Austrian authorities had seized data and a computer game on his cell phone that testified to a proximity to Islamist-terrorist ideology.
The authorities became aware of the cell phone contents after the teenager acted violently against fellow students at his school. According to APA information, the cell phone also contained IS propaganda material.
The young man was then reported to the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office. The proceedings regarding his IS membership were discontinued, it was said. However, a weapons ban was imposed on the man at the time, which, according to Salzburg police, would have remained in force until at least the beginning of 2028.
Despite the ban, he is said to have bought his weapon the day before the attack near Salzburg. This is reported by “Bild”. According to the report, the rifle is freely available for purchase in Austria as long as the buyer is registered within the first six weeks. At the latest then it would have been noticed: Emra I. is not allowed to own the weapon. You can read more about the rifle here.
The suspect is said to have fired shots from a repeating rifle in downtown Munich on Thursday morning. He deliberately shot at the police officers, who returned fire, said Herrmann. According to police, five police officers were involved in the shootout near the Israeli Consulate General, and none of them were injured. On Thursday afternoon, police announced that they believed it was an attempted terrorist attack.
The crime scene is historically special and sensitive in terms of security. The Nazi Documentation Center was built on the ruins of the so-called Brown House, the former Nazi party headquarters. The Israeli Consulate General is also located on the other side. Both buildings require special protection due to the risk they pose, which both the Bavarian police and security forces employed by Israel are to ensure.
September 5 is also the anniversary of the Munich Olympic attack. On this day in 1972, a Palestinian terrorist squad attacked the Israeli Olympic team in their quarters in Munich’s Olympic Village. Eleven Israelis died, and a policeman was also killed in the failed rescue operation at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has not yet ruled out a connection with the day of remembrance for the 1972 Olympic attack. “There may be a connection.”