The author of the shooting in Hamburg was a former Jehovah’s Witness and the Police had an anonymous tip about him

The author of shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness center from Hamburg, where he killed seven people before taking his own life on Thursday, was a former member of this community religious than legally possessed a firearmthe same one he used to commit the massacre. The police had received a anonymous warning about it previously, but according to the German authorities they did not have a sufficient basis for action at that time.

This was detailed this Friday at a press conference in which the Prosecutor’s Office specified that the man, identified as Philipp F., a 35-year-old German citizen, had no criminal record, although he had been in contact with the authorities in the past to report an alleged case of fraud himself. According to police, the attacker had a semi-automatic weapon legally as a sports shooter, since last December.

Although he himself had been a Jehovah’s Witness in the past, left the religious community about a year and a half ago, “voluntarily but not in good manners,” according to Criminal Investigation Office spokesman Thomas Radzuweit. At the moment, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the motive behind the attack is not clear, although political motivation has been ruled out. For their part, the Police have indicated it is possible that the aggressor suffered from some mental illness.

The attacker perpetrated the shooting at the religious center around 9:00 p.m. this Thursday, when there a religious service was held with fifty attendees. During the same appearance, the person in charge of Interior in Hamburg has detailed that acted alone and ran upstairs at the arrival of the agents, where he committed suicide.

During the attack, the author fired nine magazines of ammunition and another 15 were found in the search of his home. The fatalities, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, are four men, two women and a seven-month-old baby who had not yet been born and whose mother has survived. None of them were relatives of the attacker. In addition, eight other people were injured and four of them remain in serious condition.