7 people shot dead including child in Hamburg Germany
2023.03.10 12:12
7 people shot dead including child in Hamburg Germany
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – Police and prosecutors said on Friday that a Jehovah’s Witness worship hall shooter in Hamburg killed seven people, including an unborn child, before killing himself.
A Hamburg state prosecutor stated at a joint news conference with police that the 35-year-old, a German citizen and former Jehovah’s Witness, used a semi-automatic pistol he had legally owned since December in the shooting on Thursday evening.
The prosecutor stated that the victims included four men, two women, and an unborn female child.
According to Hamburg police, the mother survived.
Officials stated that the motivation was still unknown, but a political motive was ruled out. 15 ammunition magazines were discovered during the police raid of his apartment following the shooting.
The shooting began, according to officials, while approximately fifty people were attending an event in the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in the Alsterdorf neighborhood of the city.
According to the officials, the shooter fled to the floor above and killed himself when police arrived, praising police for their prompt response, which could have prevented additional deaths.
Annelore Peemueller, a resident, told Reuters that the group has used the building, a plain block in a residential area, as a place of worship for several years.
A person outside the building was seen entering through a window, as evidenced by phone footage from another resident. The witness, who declined to provide his name, stated, “I heard loud gunshots.” I saw a man using a gun to shoot at a window.
Television footage showed dozens of police cars and fire engines obstructing streets, as well as blanket-wrapped individuals being led onto a bus by emergency responders.
Another witness, who remained anonymous, stated to reporters, “There were 12 continuous shots.” Then we saw how black bags were used to transport people.
In the past few years, a number of shootings have shaken Germany. In the western town of Hanau in February 2020, a suspect with links to the far right killed nine people, including migrants from Turkey, before killing himself and his mother.
On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in October 2019, a gunman opened fire outside a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle, killing two people.
The shock was expressed by the Hamburg mayor.
“I stretch out my most profound compassion to the groups of the people in question. On Twitter, Peter Tschentscher stated, “The forces are working at full speed to pursue the perpetrators and clarify the background.”
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