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Assassination attempt on Jehovah’s Witnesses
The warning letter mentioned the gunman’s shooting club – but the weapons authority did not follow up on the tip
At this center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hamburg, gunman Philip F. shot dead seven people
© Georg Wendt / DPA
star-Research shows: An anonymous warning letter to the authorities also mentioned a shooting club. But the police station didn’t bother with the “Gun Club” where the later shooter trained.
Regarding the question of whether Philipp F.’s killing spree in a parish of Jehovah’s Witnesses on March 9 could have been prevented, new details burden the responsible weapons authority. The department belonging to the Hamburg police was not only informed in advance in an anonymous letter about the mental illness and the crude religious views of the gun owner and later gunman. The letter, which is only known in excerpts so far, is there star-According to research, also a reference to a shooting club. But that was apparently not followed up.
The “Hanseatic Gun Club”, a shooting range in downtown Hamburg, of which F. was a member, is incorrectly referred to in the letter as “Gun Club Hamburg”. Nevertheless, the imprecise naming could have given rise to further investigations.
Philipp F. had legally acquired a gun as a marksman in the “Hanseatic Gun Club”. However, the weapons authority failed to contact the shooting club in advance of the crime. A police spokeswoman confirmed this on request. After “receipt of the anonymous letter, the focus was on the person Philipp F., his weapon and the storage control. Not the place where he shoots or is a member,” said the spokeswoman.
Anonymous letter from January
This Thursday, the interior committee of the Hamburg Parliament is again dealing with the background to the amok attack in early March, in which F. shot seven people and himself. It is also about the internal processes in the weapons authority after receiving the anonymous tip.
The anonymously written letter was received by the weapons authority on January 24, 2023. In it, a whistleblower about Philipp F. expresses his alarm. As we know today, the letter came from close relatives. According to what has been published so far, the letter lists four specific points about F.: the existence of an untreated mental illness, the hatred of religions in general and Jehovah’s Witnesses in particular, the processing of his crude worldview into a book – and finally the possession of weapons.
As the only reaction to the warnings, two employees of the weapons authority visited Philipp F. at home on February 7, 2023, but could not find any major abnormalities during the unannounced check. The authority omitted further steps – such as the purchase of the confused pamphlet about the “Truth about God, Jesus and Satan”, which Philipp F. pointed out on his website. The online version only cost 9.90 euros. However, an employee of the weapons authority did not attach any relevance to the book. And the inspectors did not visit the shooting club in which F. was trained on the weapon either, as has now been confirmed. The shooting range in the center of Hamburg was last visited in June 2021 as part of a “safety check”, and there was a follow-up check in November 2021, according to the police spokeswoman. After that, the club remained unmolested.
Hamburg weapons authority in need of explanation
At a meeting of the interior committee in April, the Hamburg interior senate expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the weapons authority in the run-up to the crime. However, possible omissions were not in breach of duty, since the service regulations did not require the employees to do any further research and the unannounced gun control met the standards, it said. The act could not have been prevented even if the weapons authority had taken further steps against F., police chief Ralf Martin Meyer argued, who was not only attacked by the opposition. Weapons expert Lars Winkelsdorf accused Meyer and the weapons authority in an open letter of “serious omissions” and “sitting out” the allegations.
The public prosecutor’s office has recently been investigating an employee of the weapons authority. It is about the suspicion of negligent homicide: Wolf K., according to the accusation, is said to have not properly forwarded information about Philipp F. internally. As a result, further information was not obtained and the weapon was not confiscated in a timely manner.
In fact, the anonymous letter that warned about Philipp F. had a history: F.’s relative is said to have first contacted the “Hanseatic Gun Club”. The club then specifically contacted Wolf K. in the weapons authority – an obvious step, because K. was himself temporarily involved in the shooting range in downtown Hamburg before taking up his official position. So you knew each other. Instead of properly documenting the process and forwarding the warning internally, K. advised Philipp F.’s relative to write an anonymous letter, the public prosecutor said. The letter was actually received by the authorities a little later and allegedly passed on by K. internally for processing without the necessary background information.
Philipp F. appeared personally at the office
Questions remain: Was the weapons authority actually dependent on a single employee for information in order to be able to correctly assess the origin and explosive nature of the letter? Why did the authorities fail to visit the club and ask employees about Philipp F.’s behavior despite the warnings of an anonymous insider? Perhaps the Interior Committee will find an answer to that.
To what extent the head of the weapons authority knew about the connection between Philipp F. and the “Hanseatic Gun Club” before the crime was “currently the subject of internal investigations,” the police said star-Request to. It would have been easy for her to get this information – even without a notice. The shooting range must be noted in F.’s weapons file. In December 2022, his 9 mm pistol was also registered here. For this purpose, Philipp F. appeared personally at the weapons authority.