Munich firing: Gunman’s teen friend is first arrest in probe

The German police said on Sunday that they had arrested a 16-year-old Afghan friend of the gunman who killed nine people in a rampage at a shopping centre in Munich.

“We suspect that this boy aged 16 years could have been aware of the act,” the police said in a statement following Friday’s shooting spree after which the 18-year-old German-Iranian attacker, David Ali Sonboly, killed himself.

The arrest is the first in the investigation.

The teenager “handed himself in to police shortly after the killing spree and had been questioned on his relationship with the perpetrator,” the statement added.

But officers had “uncovered contradictions in his statements” and he was now being held in custody for withholding information about a crime.

The police also said that the young Afghan may have posted on Facebook after the killings a similar message to the one the killer posted in an attempt to lure victims.

The suspected posting related to “a meeting in a cinema complex near to Munich central station”, the police added.

After Friday’s killings, it emerged that Sonboly set up a fake Facebook account in May, stealing the profile of a real user and sending out invitations to lure people to a McDonald’s restaurant.

Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, senior public prosecutor in Munich, told a press conference on Monday the Afghan had been in contact with the gunman via WhatApp until shortly before the attack. He wiped the conversation, but officials were able to retrieve it.

“This (WhatsApp) chat and questioning of a suspect has shown that the Afghan met the gunman directly before the gun attack at what was later the scene of the crime,” Mr Steinkraus-Koch said.

The chat showed the Afghan knew the gunman was in possession of a Glock 17 firearm, Mr Steinkraus-Koch said.