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Police operation in Heidelberg
Photo: R.Priebe / dpa
After the deadly shots in a Heidelberg university lecture hall, the investigators assume that the alleged perpetrator bought his weapons abroad shortly before.
That said the head of the public prosecutor's office in Heidelberg, Andreas Herrgen, on Monday evening.
According to the police, proof of purchase was found.
The student did not have a gun license.
Now the background of the weapon purchase and the fact are determined.
The motive of the 18-year-old is still unclear.
The police received several emergency calls within a few seconds at 12:24 p.m., said Mannheim police chief Siegfried Kollmar.
The callers described how a perpetrator entered the lecture hall with two long guns and shot himself.
So far, three shell casings have been found.
A young woman was injured so badly that she died a few hours later.
Three other people were slightly injured by the shots.
There were about 30 people in the lecture hall where a tutorial was taking place.
18-year-old was a student himself
The suspect left the lecture hall after the shots were fired and apparently committed suicide. According to official information, it is an 18-year-old who lives in Mannheim and is not known to the police. He is said to have studied organic biology. The event in the lecture hall was a tutorial for the course, but it was not part of the alleged perpetrator's courses.
According to the police, the 18-year-old wrote in a WhatsApp message immediately before the crime, "that people must now be punished," as police chief Kollmar said.
In the message he also wished for a burial at sea.
"We will still have to verify that, too, and we will also have to understand that," says Kollmar.
"We will now examine his surroundings in the next few days, with high pressure." The investigators want to check all his whereabouts and conversation partners of the past few days.
The apartment of the alleged perpetrator had been searched, it said.
Evidence was secured.
The mobile phone of a contact person was also secured and is now being examined.
The bodies of the alleged perpetrator and the victim are to be autopsied.
In addition, it is determined whether third parties may have been involved in the crime.
The police assume that the 18-year-old acted alone.
But now the question is who sold him the guns, even though he was not allowed to own guns.
ptz/dpa
