8 dead in Jehovah’s Witnesses hall shooting in Germany
A shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall in Hamburg, Germany left eight people dead, apparently including the perpetrator, police said Friday. An unspecified number of other people were injured, some seriously.
There was no word on a possible motive for Thursday’s attack, which stunned Germany’s second-largest city. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former mayor of Hamburg, described it as a “brutal act of violence”.
Scholz’s spokeswoman, Christiane Hoffmann, called it a “shooting rampage” rather than a suspected terrorist attack.
“The suspected perpetrator shot several people during an event organized by the congregation,” she told reporters in Berlin. “In these difficult hours, our thoughts are with the relatives, families and friends of the victims and those who were injured by this act. We wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Police previously said they believed there was only one shooter and that this person may have been among the dead.
Officers apparently arrived at the lobby while the attack was underway — and heard one more gunshot upon arrival, according to witnesses and authorities. They did not use their own firearms, a police spokesman said.
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The head of Germany’s GdP police union in Hamburg, Horst Niens, said he believed the swift arrival of the special operations unit “distracted the perpetrator and could have prevented further victims”.
German gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States, but they are permissive compared to some of its European neighbors, and shootings are not unheard of.
Last year, an 18-year-old man opened fire at a packed lecture at Heidelberg University, killing one person and injuring three others before killing himself. In January 2020, a man shot and killed six people, including his parents, and injured two others in southwestern Germany, while a month later a gunman who posted a racist slur online killed nine people near Frankfurt.
In the latest shooting at a place of worship, a far-right extremist tried to force his way into a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, in October 2019. After failing to gain entry, he shot and killed two people. near.
The German government announced last year that it planned to crack down on the possession of weapons by suspected extremists and tighten background checks. Currently, anyone who wants to purchase a firearm must prove that they are eligible, including by showing that they need the gun. This could be because you are a member of a sports shooting club or a hunter.
When asked about a possible political reaction to the shooting, German Interior Ministry spokesman Maximilian Kall said it was necessary to wait for the results of the investigation before drawing any conclusions.
On Friday morning, court investigators in protective white suits were seen outside the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a square, three-story building next to a car repair shop, a few kilometers (miles) from downtown Hamburg. As a light snow fell, officers placed yellow cones on the ground and window sills to mark evidence.
David Semonian, a spokesman for the U.S.-based Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in an emailed statement early Friday that members “around the world are mourning the victims of this traumatic event.”
“Church elders in the local area are providing pastoral care to those affected by the event,” he wrote.
Police spokesman Holger Vehren said police were alerted to the shooting Thursday night and were quickly on the scene.
He said officers found people on the ground floor with apparent gunshot wounds and then heard a gunshot from upstairs, where they found a fatally wounded man who may have been the shooter. They didn’t fire their guns.
Student Laura Bauch, who lives nearby, said there were four shootings, German news agency dpa reported. “There were always a few shots fired during those periods,” she said.
Bauch said she looked out the window and saw a person running from the ground floor to the second floor of the Jehovah’s Witnesses hall.
Gregor Miebach, who lives within sight of the building, heard the shots and filmed a figure entering the building through a window. In his footage, shots are then heard from inside. The figure later appears to emerge from the lobby, is seen in the courtyard, and then fires more shots through a first floor window before the lights in the room go out.
Miebach told German television news agency NonstopNews that he heard at least 25 gunshots. A final shot followed the arrival of police, he said.
His mother, Dorte Miebach, said she was shocked by the shooting. “It’s really 50 meters (yards) from our house and a lot of people have died,” she said. “This is still incomprehensible. We still haven’t quite come to terms with it.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are part of an international church founded in the 19th century in the United States and headquartered in Warwick, New York. It claims about 8.7 million members worldwide, including about 170,000 in Germany.
Members are known for their evangelistic efforts, which include knocking on doors and distributing literature in public squares. The denomination’s practices include refusing to bear arms, receive blood transfusions, salute the national flag, or participate in secular government.
