Munich victims were immigrants, teens

Munich police have drawn links with the 2011 attacks in Norway that killed 77, mostly teenagers.

Munich police noted the apparent targeting of young people in both the Munich shooting and the 2011 attacks in Norway that killed 77, mostly teenagers. Picture: Johannes Simon/Getty Images.

Victims of Friday’s deadly shooting in Munich were residents of the city and the region, but most — possibly all — were from immigrant families.

Of the dead, three were Turkish, three were Kosovar and one was Greek. Hungary’s foreign minister said a Hungarian-German born in 2001 had been killed in the attack, as well. Police said nine people, aged between 14 and 45, died in the attack, including seven teens.

Dijamant Zabergja, a 21-year-old whose family came from Kosovo, was with a friend near the McDonald’s restaurant where the shooting began, his father said in a television interview.

“The friend called me. He said they were buying a drink and wanted to sit outside,” the father told the Daily Mail in a video interview. “The attacker was two meters away. He opened fire, the friend fled ... and my son ... was shot and killed. I’m still dreaming. I don’t believe it yet.”

The younger Mr Zabergja had many friends, both in Kosovo and in Germany, and was well liked, said Syl Mehmeti Walter, 48, whose mother is a cousin of Dijamant’s mother. Mr Zabergja also was “well integrated in Germany,” Mr Mehmeti Walter added. “My mother, who knew him well, always said ‘what a cheerful boy.’”

The entire family was mourning Mr Zabergja’s death, he said. “I don’t know what I shall tell my own children now; I can only say ‘be careful.’” His children are 16 and 18 years old.

Munich police suggested it was no coincidence that the shooting on Friday that left 10 people dead, including the attacker, occurred on the fifth anniversary of Norway’s deadliest mass murder. “You don’t have to look into a crystal ball to see there are similarities between the two (attacks),” Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrä said on Saturday.

Mr Andrä noted the apparent targeting of young people in both the Munich shooting and the 2011 attacks in Norway that killed 77, mostly teenagers. Seven of the nine victims in Friday’s shootings were teenagers.

The attacks in Norway were aimed at a government building in downtown Oslo and a youth camp affiliated with the country’s Labor Party on an island outside the city. The attacker, Anders Behring Breivik, said afterwards that he acted in defence of his culture against Muslims and liberal immigration policies.

The Munich attack, which followed a string of terrorist attacks around Europe, quickly emerged as more similar to killing sprees that occurred before Islamic extremists put Europe on edge.

Another of those slain, Armela Segashi, was 14 years old and also a Kosovar, according to the Facebook page of her brother, Arbnor. She was at the Olympia shopping centre with a friend, Sabina Sulaj, who also was killed in the attack.

A 14-year-old boy who gave only his first name, Guiseppe, said he was eating with friends at the McDonald’s, which is near the shopping centre, when a man suddenly began shooting. “I dropped my bag, I dropped everything, jumped over the fence and ran,” the boy said, standing in front of the cordoned-off restaurant on Saturday.

Two of his friends were killed and another was injured in the attack, he said. “I saw them an hour earlier, down there,” he said, pointing at the shopping mall. “They were all laughing and all, and then ... all three hit.”

Guiseppe said that once he realised he had run far enough, he turned around to look. Behind him, he said, people were running in panic. “That just made me even more scared,” he said. “I thought he (the shooter) was behind them, so then I ran even faster.”

Germany has a relatively low rate of gun crime, partly due to restrictive firearms laws. But it has nevertheless faced school shootings similar to ones that made headlines in the US Attackers frequently fit a similar profile to the Munich shooter.

On Saturday, police and neighbours painted a picture of the young man, identified as Ali David Sonboly, as a troubled youth with a penchant for violent video games. The 18-year old suffered from depression and took a deep interest in mass shootings, police said. Among his belongings, police found documents concerning shooting sprees and a book called “Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters” by Peter Langman.

Mr Langman, a psychologist and expert on school shootings based in Pennsylvania, said in an interview that perpetrators of mass shootings are often familiar with similar crimes and sometimes look for a role model to emulate. He said it is too simple to cast perpetrators as “loners” immersed in virtual violence. “People want to reduce it to video games or bullying,” said Mr Langman, but “hundreds of millions of people play violent video games and don’t commit a violent act.”

“A motivation can be revenge but other times it seems like a general lashing out against the world,” Mr Langman said. “They may be getting back at everyone they envy, and they envy everyone.”

In 2002, Robert Steinhäuser put on a black mask and killed 16 people at his school with a shotgun and handgun, before committing suicide in Erfurt, which lies about 190 miles southwest of the capital Berlin.

The 19-year old, who had been expelled from school, struck as students were in the midst of year-end exams. The attack took place on April 26, three years and six days after the Columbine, Colo., high school massacre. At the time, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder called the Erfurt killings “beyond the powers of imagination.”

About four years later, Sebastian Bosse, a student in Emsdetten, in northwestern Germany, entered his school dressed in a combat mask and armed with bombs and rifles. He injured dozens of people before killing himself. In his journals, he expressed admiration for Eric Harris, one of the Columbine killers.

In 2009, there was another school shooting in the southwestern German town of Winnenden, where 17-year old Tim Kretschmer killed 15 people with a gun he took from his father. A court later ruled the boy’s father responsible because he failed to observe laws regarding the storage of firearms.

- Dow Jones newswires, AFP