Police were tipped off about Philipp Fusz month before Hamburg shooting but they did not take away his weapon
Daniel Hoffman
Updated on February 20, 2026
Police got warned Philipp Fusz two months before the Hamburg mass shooting
He wound up killing six grown-ups and an unborn kid and harming eight others
Philipp is a novice marksman who had a lawfully held self-loader Naysayer and Koch gun
Two months before the thought Hamburg shooter Philipp Fusz completed a mass homicide at a Realm Lobby of Jehovah’s Observers in the Alsterdorf quarter, killing six grown-ups and an unborn youngster, and harming eight others, the police clearly got a hint about him however didn’t track down motivation to remove his weapon.
Philipp, a German resident, and a previous Jehovah’s Observer shot himself after police showed up at the corridor. About 18 months before the shooting, police said he had left the gathering “willfully, however obviously not embracing a positive outlook. A thought process in the assault was still not entirely settled.
On February 7, officials visited Philipp’s loft in the wake of getting an unknown tip back in January. The tip raised worries about his psychological state. The tip guaranteed the man “bore specific annoyance toward strict devotees, specifically toward Jehovah’s Observers and his previous business,” Hamburg’s police boss, Ralf Martin Meyer said.
This is the face of Philipp Fusz, a 35 year old ex-Jehovah’s Witness. 18 months ago he left Jehovah’s Witnesses after falling out with members of his congregation. Possibly having an undiagnosed psychological illness, he had indicated a particular anger …
— Daniel Torridon (@ihavemanylayers) March 11, 2023
Philipp is a beginner marksman who had a legitimately held self-loader Naysayer and Koch gun as well as a license for the weapon. Since he had no crook record or any connects to psychological oppression that would have consequently kept him from claiming a weapon, the policing never tracked down motivation to remove his gun.
“Most importantly an unknown tip in which somebody says they’re stressed an individual could have a mental disease, isn’t in itself a reason for (such) measures,” the city police boss said.
In an explanation, the Jehovah’s Observer people group in Germany said it was “profoundly disheartened by the terrible assault on its individuals at the Realm Corridor in Hamburg after a strict help”. The loss of life from the mass shooting might rise. “We are confused considering this viciousness,” Scholz, a previous Hamburg city hall leader, said at an occasion in Munich. “We are grieving those whose lives were taken so fiercely.”