2024-09-15 00:38:51
Shots were fired near the Israeli Consulate General in downtown Munich in the morning. The police shot a suspect and he died. Who is the man and what happened?
In a shootout near the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, the police shot and killed an armed man. He died shortly afterwards. How did it happen? What is known about the dead suspect?
Police discovered an armed man near the consulate and the Nazi Documentation Center in downtown Munich at around 9 a.m. According to police, he was carrying an older model of repeating weapon. Repeating weapons are firearms in which the ammunition is reloaded by hand.
According to the Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU), the gunman deliberately shot at the police officers. They returned fire. The man was hit in the exchange of fire and later died at the scene. According to the police, no other people were injured.
Investigators believe it was an attempted terrorist attack. According to current information, there is a “connection to the Consulate General of the State of Israel,” the Munich police and public prosecutor’s office announced. The attack occurred on the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympic attack: Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli team, killed two athletes and took nine hostages; a rescue operation ended fatally for the hostages. At the time of the current exchange of fire, the consulate was closed for a memorial service to mark the anniversary.
According to police, the man killed was an 18-year-old Austrian whose home in Salzburg was searched by Austrian police after the suspected attempted attack. According to Salzburg police, numerous officers went to Neumarkt am Wallersee to secure evidence and traces.
The 18-year-old had lived with his parents in Neumarkt. For safety reasons, the police evacuated the house and the neighboring buildings. According to the police, it later turned out that there had been no danger.
According to the Munich police, there are no other suspects.
According to Bavaria’s Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU), the investigation is being led by the Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism (ZET) at the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office.
There is no official information yet about the shooter’s motive. He has Bosnian roots and was previously suspected of being religiously radicalized and interested in explosives and weapons, as the Salzburg police reported. That is why he was investigated last year and a weapons ban was imposed, which remained in effect until at least the beginning of 2028.
The then 17-year-old had come to the attention of the authorities after threatening fellow students and causing bodily harm. In this connection, he was accused of involvement in a terrorist organization, it was said. According to information from the Austrian news agency APA, propaganda from the terrorist organization Islamic State was found on his mobile phone.
But the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office closed the investigation in April 2023, police said. The reason was not given. “Since then, the 18-year-old has not come to the attention of the police again,” it said.