The teenage gunman who killed nine people and wounded 35 others in a shooting spree in Munich on Friday planned his attack for an entire year, German authorities revealed.
According to the Bavarian State Crime Office, Ali David Sonboly had illegally purchased the Glock pistol he used in the attack online. He also left a manifesto of some description on his computer - though its details have not been released.
He is believed to have drawn crowds of victims to the site by offering free McDonald's meals at the Olympia shopping center, via a hacked Facebook page.
Though his crime was premeditated, at this point investigators believe the specific victims themselves were shot at random, and note that none of them were Sonboly's classmates. Seven of those killed were teenagers.
Sonboly's motives are not yet known, but he was reportedly obsessed with previous deadly mass-shootings by teenage attackers and had a history of mental health problems. He was also also an avid player of first-person shooter computer games.
In the aftermath of the attack, police described him as an anti-social loner, who had reportedly been bullied at school and may have suffered from depression. He committed suicide shortly after the slaughter.
According to the BBC, the head of Bavaria's criminal police said that Sonboly had visited the site of a previous massacre by a teenage gunman in 2009 - the town of Winnenden in southwest Germany - and took photos. He also possessed literature and paraphernalia which illustrated an obsession with that killing and others, including the attacks by far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Brievik.