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BERLIN — One sufferer’s life remains to be in peril after final week’s taking pictures at a Jehovah’s Witness corridor in Hamburg by which a former member of the congregation killed six folks after which himself, authorities mentioned Tuesday.
Police and prosecutors mentioned they’re nonetheless working to pin down the motive of the shooter, a 35-year-old German who has been recognized solely as Philipp F. in keeping with native privateness guidelines.
Officers say 9 folks had been wounded in Thursday night’s taking pictures throughout a service, together with a lady who misplaced her unborn youngster. Seven had gunshot wounds. Senior police official Uwe Stockmann mentioned six had been nonetheless in hospitals on Tuesday and one particular person’s life was nonetheless in peril.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany have mentioned that the person police recognized because the gunman was a former member who left the church voluntarily two years in the past.
Investigators mentioned final week that his departure from the church was “apparently not on good phrases.”
Hamburg prosecutor Arnold Keller mentioned that, thus far, investigators have come throughout nothing that pointed upfront to any plans for a rampage like Thursday’s taking pictures. They’re nonetheless wanting into an internet site registered in his title and a self-published e book it hyperlinks to titled “God, Jesus Christ and Devil.”
“In view of the earlier historical past concerning the connection between Philipp F. and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it at the very least can’t be dominated out that Philipp F. acted out of hatred towards this group,” Keller instructed reporters in Hamburg. “It can’t be mentioned conclusively at present whether or not the motive for the crime is in the end to be discovered right here.”
Stockmann mentioned every thing factors to the perpetrator having acted alone, and that there have been no indications that he was concerned in any community or had far-right views.
The Hamburg congregation that was holding a service when the assault occurred at the moment has about 60 members and is one in every of 47 within the port metropolis, which is dwelling to nearly 4,000 denomination members, in line with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses declare a worldwide membership of about 8.7 million, with about 170,000 in Germany. The spiritual motion was based in the USA within the nineteenth century and is headquartered in Warwick, New York.