Germany: Hanau terrorist investigation progresses

It is 9:53 p.m. Wednesday evening when Tobias Rathjen runs into the field of a surveillance camera. The alleged perpetrator of the Hanau double shooting then killed four people, three at the Midnight, a shisha bar in the city center, and a fourth in the La Vos café, located in the immediate vicinity. In the images revealed by Bild, the 43-year-old man wears a green and yellow parka, jeans, a hat and still holds a weapon in his hand.

Barely ten minutes later, the terrorist reached the district of Kesselstadt, where he killed five other victims inside and outside the Arena Bar. In total, the results of this double shootout of a racist nature amounted to nine dead and six injured. All the victims have in common that they come from an immigrant background (Turkish, Afghan, Bosnian or even Polish).

Tobias Rathjen then takes the time to tag the address of his website on a wall and then reaches his home, located 300 m from the second crime scene. He is said to have died at around 3 a.m. in a room in the basement of the pavilion where his mother's lifeless body is also found by the police.

Father's role remains to be defined

Her father, present at the home, survived. Considered at least initially as a suspect, Hans-Gerd Rathjen came out handcuffed from his house but his role still remains to be clarified. Could he have played an active role in the organization of the attack perpetrated by his son? Or did he at least have knowledge of his son's murderous plan? At this stage, nothing would allow to affirm it.

A former member of the environmentalist Alliance 90, the 72-year-old was already known to the police for extortion and slanderous charges. According to the testimony of a neighbor, he was renowned for his irascible character, especially with regard to the inhabitants with foreign origins, very numerous in his district.

A personality already tormented in adolescence

According to the first elements of the investigation, the terrorist, dismissed from a shooting club, would have used two semi-automatic pistols to commit his massacre, a Walther PPQ and a Sig Sauer P226, which he owned.

In addition, new elements appeared in the German press concerning the CV of Tobias Rathjen. Born on February 17, 1977 in Hanau, this hardened bachelor, apparently deprived of social life, had settled in the parental home for a year after leaving his job in an insurance company near Munich. Some of his former classmates described a personality that was already tormented as a teenager. "He was able to be super soft then suddenly very aggressive," recalls one of them, quoted by Bild.

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