The shooting took place around 10 pm local time in a small town called Hanau, Germany. Authorities aren’t sure if more than one suspect was responsible:
The first shooting was at a bar in the city centre, while the second was in Hanau’s Kesselstadt neighbourhood, according to local reports.
Police officers and helicopters are patrolling both areas.
An unknown number of gunmen killed three people at the first shisha bar, Midnight, before driving to the Arena Bar & Cafe and shooting dead another five victims, regional broadcaster Hessenschau reports.
The manhunt is on and so far police aren’t saying anything about a possible motive:
Police said they were searching for the suspects, who fled the scene in “a dark car” with helicopters and a large-scale response. They had no immediate information on a motive for the shooting and were asking residents for any tips.
There are a few clips circulating on Twitter.
Schießerei in #Hanau mit 2 Toten pic.twitter.com/xOpnj5PZnt
— DeFi Baba (@defibaba03) February 19, 2020
#Hanau – Es scheint eher aus dem dunklen Milieu zu kommen… pic.twitter.com/iNuw9D1oIy
— DeFi Baba (@defibaba03) February 19, 2020
I don’t know if these have been confirmed but I see some major news outlets like the BBC are publishing them. The tweet below reads: “A suspected perpetrator is arrested.”
https://twitter.com/Kuvvetmira20/status/1230264749713186817
All of this happened about 5 hours ago so there’s limited information at this moment. I’ll update this post as more becomes available.
Update: The Washington Post just put up a story with the same basic information. However, the Post added this sentence at the end:
German police this week said they had arrested 12 members of a far-right group planning attacks on mosques and targets associated with refugees and migrants.
Is the Post just speculating here or have they been told something they can’t print? Here’s an AP story on those arrests from last week:
Federal prosecutors said four German men were detained on suspicion of founding and participating in “a right-wing terrorist organization.” They were identified only as Werner S., Michael B., Thomas N. and Tony E. for privacy reasons…
Prosecutors alleged that the suspects wanted to achieve their goal “with as yet unspecified attacks against politicians, asylum-seekers and Muslims to provoke a civil war-like situation.”
Update: “Suspected culprit was found lifeless at his home address in #Hanau. Special police officers also discovered another body there. The investigation is ongoing. There are currently no indications of other perpetrators.”
❗ #Update nach #Schießerei in #Hanau ❗
Mutmaßlicher Täter wurde leblos an seiner Wohnanschrift in #Hanau aufgefunden. Zudem entdeckten Spezialkräfte der Polizei dort eine weitere Leiche.
Die Ermittlungen dauern an.
Aktuell gibt es keine Hinweise auf weitere Täter.
— Polizei Südosthessen (@Polizei_soh) February 20, 2020
In addition to those two bodies, another one of the wounded victims has died. So the death toll is now 11 including the shooter.
Bild names the shooter and also reports he left behind a letter and a video in which he expressed confused, right-wing views:
According to BILD information, the alleged perpetrator left a letter of confession and a video. In the letter, Tobias R. speaks, among other things, of the need to destroy certain peoples whose expulsion from Germany can no longer be achieved…
According to BILD information, the shooter from Hanau is Tobias R. In his confessional letter, R. expresses confused views, many of which are also right-wing in nature.
No one else has confirmed this and it’s not coming from police yet, but Bild has been ahead on much of the reporting tonight.
That’s it for tonight. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about this terrible attack in the morning.
