Six dead in shooting attack in Jehovah’s Witnesses hall in Hamburg, Germany
HAMBURG, Germany — A gunman stormed a service at his former Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Hamburg, killing six people before taking his own life after police arrived, authorities in the German port city said Friday.
Police gave no motive for Thursday night’s attack. But they acknowledged having recently received an anonymous tip that claimed the man identified as the shooter showed anger toward Jehovah’s Witnesses and might be psychologically unfit to own a gun.
Eight people were wounded, including a woman who was 28 weeks pregnant and lost the fetus. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the death toll could rise.
Officers apparently reached the hall while the attack was ongoing — and heard one more shot after they arrived, according to witnesses and authorities. They did not fire their weapons, but officials said their intervention probably prevented further loss of life at the boxy building next to an auto repair shop a few miles from downtown.
Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, lamented the “terrible incident in my home city.”
“We are speechless in view of this violence,” Scholz said at an event in Munich. “We are mourning those whose lives were taken so brutally.”
The wariness over military involvement that made Germany hesitate to send tanks to Ukraine is rooted in the country’s memories of World War I and II.
All of the victims were German citizens apart from two wounded women, one who has Ugandan citizenship and another who is Ukrainian.
Officials said the gunman was a 35-year-old German national identified only as Philipp F., in line with the country’s privacy rules. Police said the suspect had left the congregation “voluntarily but apparently not on good terms” about a year and a half ago.
A website registered in the name of someone who fits the police description of the gunman says that he grew up in the Bavarian town of Kempten in “a strict religious evangelical household.” The website, which is filled with business jargon, also links to a self-published book about “God, Jesus Christ and Satan.”
The gunman legally owned a semiautomatic Heckler & Koch Pistole P30 pistol, according to police. He fired more than 100 shots during the attack — and the head of the Hamburg prosecutors office, Ralf Peter Anders, said hundreds more rounds were found in a search of the man’s apartment.
Germany’s gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States but permissive compared with some European neighbors, and shootings are relatively common.
Last year, an 18-year-old man opened fire in a packed lecture at Heidelberg University, killing one person and wounding three others before killing himself. In 2020, the nation saw two high-profile shootings, one that killed six people and another that took nine lives.
In the most recent shooting involving a site of worship, a far-right extremist attempted to force his way into a synagogue in Halle on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur in 2019. After failing to gain entry, he shot two people to death nearby.
The German government announced plans last year to crack down on gun ownership by suspected extremists and to tighten background checks. Currently, anyone who wants to acquire a firearm must show that they are fit to do so, including by proving that they require a gun. Reasons can include being part of a sports shooting club or being a hunter.
Hamburg Police Chief Ralf Martin Meyer said the man was visited by police after they received an anonymous tip in January alleging that he “bore particular anger toward religious believers, in particular toward Jehovah’s Witnesses and his former employer.”
Two families of Jehovah’s Witnesses fled Russia and made their way to San Diego. Now they are seeking asylum on the basis of religious persecution.
Officers said the man was cooperative and found no grounds to take away his weapon, according to Meyer.
“The bottom line is that an anonymous tip in which someone says they’re worried a person might have a psychological illness isn’t in itself a basis for [such] measures,” he said.
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Germany’s top security official laid a wreath of flowers outside the hall to commemorate the victims and thanked police before taking questions from reporters.
Asked whether the attack could have been prevented, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said it was necessary to wait for the investigation to conclude, but she acknowledged that changes were needed in the way background checks are conducted and information is exchanged between authorities. She said a bill now making its way through the legislative process would require gun owners to undergo psychological tests.
On Friday morning, forensic investigators in protective white suits could still be seen outside the hall. As a light snow fell, officers placed yellow cones on the ground and windowsills to mark evidence.
Hamburg’s top security official said a special operations unit that happened to be near the hall arrived just minutes after receiving the first emergency call at
9:04 p.m. Thursday. The officers were able to separate the gunman from the congregation.
German chancellor wants to keep country’s three remaining nuclear plants running until mid-April to fend off a possible energy crunch in winter.
“We can assume that they saved many people’s lives this way,” Hamburg state Interior Minister Andy Grote told reporters.
Upon arrival, officers found people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, and then heard a shot from an upper floor, where they found a fatally wounded person who may have been the shooter, according to police spokesman Holger Vehren. They did not fire their weapons.
The cache of guns and ammunition was taken from the apartment and its occupant arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats.
For the record:
2:48 a.m. March 10, 2023An earlier version of this story spelled Gregor Miebach’s last name as Miesbach.
Gregor Miebach, who lives within sight of the building, heard shots and filmed a figure entering the building through a window. In his video, shots can then be heard from inside. The figure later apparently emerges from the hall, is seen in the courtyard and fires more shots through a first-floor window before the lights in the room go out. Miebach told German television news agency NonstopNews that he heard at least 25 shots. After police arrived, he heard one last shot, he said.
His mother, Dorte Miebach, said she was shocked by the shooting, which occurred about 50 yards from her home. “This is still incomprehensible,” she said. “We still haven’t quite come to terms with it.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses is
an international religious group founded in the United States in the 19th century and headquartered in Warwick, N.Y. It claims a worldwide membership of about 8.7 million, with about 170,000 in Germany.
No doubt you’ve had the thought: What would I do if faced with an active shooter? Here are some strategies to think about.
Members are known for evangelistic efforts that include knocking on doors and distributing literature in public squares. The denomination’s distinctive practices include a refusal to bear arms, receive blood transfusions, salute a national flag or participate in secular government.
David Semonian, a U.S.-based spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in an emailed statement early Friday that members “worldwide grieve for the victims of this traumatic event.”
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