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Police officers enter the building where the crime took place on Monday
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
Why did the 18-year-old student attack his fellow students - and how did he get his hands on the guns?
The police in Baden-Württemberg are now trying to clarify these questions in particular with a special commission after the deadly attack on the University of Heidelberg.
An investigation group called “Botanik” was set up with 32 people, said Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) in Stuttgart.
He is certain that it will be possible to bring light into the darkness quickly.
The group's name is due to the fact that the affected university building borders on the botanical garden.
A student shot students several times in a lecture hall on Monday.
A total of three women and one man aged 19 to 23 were injured, a 23-year-old died in the afternoon in the university clinic as a result of a shot in the head.
The perpetrator is said to have bought the guns abroad a few days ago, and investigators found around 100 rounds of ammunition in his backpack.
The police are now trying to find out how he managed to acquire it.
The shooter did not have a firearms license or a gun owner's license – nor a driver's license that would have allowed him to drive abroad by himself.
"They won't forget that for the rest of their lives"
Why the man shot is still unclear - and with it the question of whether he committed the act as a gunman indiscriminately.
Shortly before the crime, he had sent a WhatsApp message to his father.
According to the police, he wrote "that people now have to be punished".
According to current knowledge, the investigators assume that the German, who lived in Mannheim, shot several times in the lecture hall in which around 30 students were and later killed himself in front of the building.
Both bodies were taken to the Institute for Forensic Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital for an autopsy.
At the request of the public prosecutor's office in Heidelberg, the perpetrator's apartment in Mannheim and other premises of his parents were also searched.
Digital devices were secured and are now to be evaluated with regard to a possible motive.
One day after the bloody deed, there was dismay on campus. According to the broadcaster SWR, people laid flowers in front of the lecture hall building and put up candles. Accordingly, the mother of a student also reported how she received the message from her daughter »Help! There's an assassin here!”. A police spokesman said on Monday: "The victim's parents are in great pain, but so are the perpetrator."
The German Police Union recommends those directly affected by the crime to seek psychological care.
"The students in the lecture hall were scared to death, they didn't know how long the perpetrator would keep shooting," said country head Ralf Kusterer of the dpa news agency.
He added: "They won't forget that for the rest of their lives." What they experienced could lead to post-traumatic stress disorders if those affected were not treated.
apr/dpa
