German gunman kills 7 people

GBNEWS24DESK//

A gunman in Germany shot dead seven people including an unborn child before killing himself at a Jehovah’s Witness worship hall in the city of Hamburg, police and prosecutors said yesterday. The 35-year-old, a German citizen and former Jehovah’s Witness, used a semi-automatic pistol he had legally owned since December in the shooting on Thursday evening, a Hamburg state prosecutor said at a joint news conference with police. The victims included four men and two women, and an unborn female child, the prosecutor said. Hamburg police said the mother survived. Officials said the motive remained unknown, but a political reason had been ruled out. Police who raided his flat after the shooting found 15 loaded magazines of ammunition. The officials said about 50 people were at an event held in the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in the Alsterdorf district of the city when the shooting started. When police arrived, the shooter ran to the floor above and shot himself, the officials said, praising police for a quick response they said possibly avoided more deaths. The building, a nondescript block in a residential area, has been used by the group as a place of worship for several years, resident Annelore Peemueller told Reuters.