“Other people were injured in the act, some seriously.” The securing of evidence at the crime scene continued in the morning. “At the moment the handovers are going on here. It’s all in flux,” said a police spokesman.
Shots were fired during an event in the community building on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, the police wrote on their website: “According to the current status, eight people were fatally injured, including apparently the alleged perpetrator.” According to information from security circles, the police classified the act as a killing spree.
The “Spiegel” reported that the suspect is said to be a former member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The magazine also reported that the murder weapon was a pistol. However, the police could not provide any information on Friday morning – neither about the alleged perpetrator nor about the exact course of events.
Press conference at 12 p.m
The Hamburg interior authority, the public prosecutor’s office and the police wanted to announce more details on Friday afternoon. A press conference was scheduled for 12 p.m. at police headquarters. The interior senator Andy Grote, a representative of the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office, the police chief Ralf Martin Meyer and the head of the police force, Matthias Tresp, are expected to speak.
What kind of event was held in the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses was initially unclear. One of two weekly meetings was announced on the Jehovah’s Witnesses website for Thursday evening. According to the information, the public is also invited. The meetings, therefore, study the Bible and how its teachings can be applied in life. Police say several people attended the event.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses were “deeply concerned”. “Our deepest sympathy goes to the families of the victims and the traumatized eyewitnesses. The chaplains of the local community are doing their best to support them in this difficult hour,” said a statement on the community’s website.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian community with their own interpretation of the Bible. The followers believe in Jehovah as “almighty God and Creator” and are said to submit to strict rules. They are convinced that a new world is at hand and that they will be saved as a chosen church. Jehovah’s Witnesses have around eight million members worldwide. The “world headquarters” is in New York. The German community, with fewer than 200,000 members, is one of the largest in Europe. According to their website, there are just over 22,000 active Jehovah’s Witnesses in Austria.
The crime scene is a three-story commercial building located on a wide street and next to a painting company and a construction site with three large cranes. In the early morning, the police secured further tracks. During the night, the investigators put up numerous small number boards on the outside of the building to mark traces of the act of violence. A 3D scanner was also used in the morning to document the course of the crime. The entrance to the Jehovah’s Witnesses building was covered with a privacy screen in the morning.
A hearse drove up to the scene around 8:00 a.m. Traffic on the busy Deelböge road was reopened around 6 a.m.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had described the attack in a tweet as a brutal act of violence. “Bad news from #Hamburg. Several members of a Jehovah church fell victim to a brutal act of violence last night,” he posted on Friday via the government account on Twitter. “My thoughts are with them and their relatives. And with the security forces, who have been through a difficult operation.”
