The 18-year-old bought three long guns in Austria about a week before the crime, police and public prosecutors in Mannheim said on Wednesday. Officers recovered two of the guns and around 150 rounds of ammunition at the scene. The Austrian police found the third weapon in a room that the young man had rented during a stay.
The 18-year-old bought the two weapons used in the crime from an arms dealer, and the third, a rifle, from a private individual. According to the information, the extent to which the arms dealer or his employees have to be held criminally responsible for the sale of arms is being examined. This is said to be difficult due to the different legal situation in Austria and Germany.
The 18-year-old fired three shots on Monday. He killed a 23-year-old student and injured three other students while a lecture was in progress. He then killed himself. The search of the suspect’s apartment in Mannheim and the ongoing evaluation of mobile phones, laptops and a tablet did not reveal any evidence of a personal relationship between the alleged perpetrator and the victims.
The 18-year-old is also said to have taken a taxi from Mannheim to the crime scene in Neuenheimer Feld in Heidelberg. The two weapons are said to have been transported in a sports bag in the trunk of the taxi.
According to the information, the investigators are also examining evidence that the suspect was a member of the right-wing extremist party Der III in the past. Is said to have been gone, and in 2019, when the suspect was still a minor, is said to have left it. Evaluations of the alleged perpetrator’s digital media and testimonies from his personal environment have so far not revealed any evidence of radicalization or of the alleged perpetrator having contacts with the right-wing spectrum.
It cannot be ruled out that the suspect’s mental illness could have been the cause of the crime, it said. However, reliable statements on the motive for the crime are reserved for further investigations.
Source: Nachrichten
