A custody dispute is the likely motive behind the fatal shooting at a youth welfare facility in northern Germany, with the main suspect identified as a 45-year-old German-born man of Turkish origin from the Hanover area, Police Chief Kathrin Schuol said at a press conference on Monday evening.
The suspect had an appointment with many of those he is alleged to have killed at the facility in the town of Stade, to the west of Hamburg. The meeting related to the custody of his 3-month-old daughter. The child and her mother were not among the six victims.
Police had prior intelligence on the man, including in connection with threatening behaviour, Schuol said, but stressed he had not previously been classified as "absolutely violent" in the police system. The suspected gunman was detained by police in the afternoon.
No formal arrest warrant has yet been issued for the main suspect, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said at the press conference, adding that it remained open whether and when a warrant would be applied for on Tuesday, depending on the further results of the police investigation.
The murder weapon has been seized by police, Schuol said. It remains unclear how the suspect obtained the weapon. He did not hold a firearms licence, the police chief said.
Six adults in total have died as a result of the attack. All of the victims were employees of the youth welfare facility, said Schuol, who heads the police in the town of Lüneburg. Five died at the scene and a sixth succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Among the victims were four women and two men. Several others were injured, some of them seriously.
Both Stade and Lüneburg are located in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.
Lower Saxon Interior Minister Daniela Behrens described the act as "cold-blooded" at the press conference.
Behrens described the attack as an isolated incident with no connections to other cases. "I am certain that this terrible act will occupy Stade for a long time. And it will leave its mark," Behrens said.
She said the case had nothing to do with previous incidents in the town. Stade had made headlines last year when clashes broke out between two large extended families during a murder trial.
Stade has a population of just under 48,700 and is located roughly 40 kilometres west of Hamburg.
