A disturbing video has emerged that appears to show Munich gunman Ali David Sonboly shooting at people outside a McDonald’s in the city as Germany reels from the news of a shooting spree that started at a local shopping center and spread throughout the city. Watch (warning: disturbing video)
The gunman has now been identified as Sonboly, a depressed and deranged 18-year-old who claimed he was bullied at school and researched school shootings, according to UK Daily Mail and a Munich police news conference.
The U.S. Consulate warned people to stay indoors and confirmed there were reports of shootings throughout the city after the shopping mall incident. It remained unclear what the motive was; CBS says police are calling it “suspected terrorism” and that 10 people have died, not counting the gunman, who is also dead. There were conflicting reports, ranging from the shooter yelling “I am German” to the shooter (according to an eyewitness interviewed by CNN) shouting “Allahu Akbar.” In a news conference, German police said the gunman was a German-Iranian 18-year-old from Munich.
Video captures chilling moment gunman fired at shoppers in #Munich t.co/7uAcXudb8Y
Munich police initially said there were three gunmen, but now say they believe there was only one shooter. UK Mirror says the gunman may have shouted “f***ing foreigners” before shooting. An 8-year-old boy saw the gunman loading a gun in the bathroom.
#BREAKING: Unconfirmed footage shows gunman shooting on civilians from Munich #McDonalds t.co/aFRb9iVpIV
Sky News reported that the shooting started at the mall and continued outside the McDonalds across the street. According to CNN, police had received witness accounts that there were possibly three gunmen and a manhunt was underway, but those accounts were later attributed to the chaos surrounding the incident.
The fast-folding situation comes after a man affiliated with ISIS wielded an axe against passengers on a passenger train in Bavaria, where the City of Munich lies. That teenager’s attack is being considered an act of terrorism. The Munich shooting – in a country that has grappled with a refugee influx – also comes just days after Mohamed Bouhlel rammed a truck into a crowd at the Nice, France Bastille Day celebration, killing more than 80 people and injuring hundreds.
Just Thursday, French prosecutors had announced that they had arrested and were charging five people with being accomplices of Bouhlel; they alleged that the five people had been ,in some cases, in repeated contact with Bouhlel and had provided him support leading up to the terrorist attack, including a pistol that he used during it.