One week after the rampage with eight dead at the Jehovah's Witnesses in Hamburg, the police are also looking for possible confidants. There are interviews in the environment of the perpetrator Philipp F., said police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün on Thursday of the German press Agency in Hamburg. "Basically, these surveys are there to get a complete picture of Philipp F. The aim is to answer the question of why for the victims and their relatives. But of course we also check whether there is somehow a person who bears criminal responsibility." Members of the Hamburg shooting club, in which the shooter was a member, are also to be questioned. Previously, several media had reported.

In the act on Thursday evening a week ago, the 35-year-old German had killed seven people in the north of Hamburg - including an unborn child - with shots from a semi-automatic pistol and then killed himself. Nine people were injured.

In the building in Hamburg Nord, where Jehovah's Witnesses met at least twice a week for meetings, the homicide squad is still active. She continues to search for traces in the house in order to be able to reconstruct the act, Levgrün said. Until then, the object will also be guarded so that no unauthorized person can enter and thus destroy possible traces.

Variety of interrogations

Even outside the crime scene, investigations continue under high pressure. "The large number of interrogations are now continuing." However, the interviews of the community members are not easy. "It's difficult, you actually have to say that. This is quite a closed circle," said Levgrün. Jehovah's Witnesses followed the rule that they do not talk about other people. "But above all, don't talk badly about other people. That's difficult."

Investigations also in the weapons authority

However, investigations in the case currently also include the internal processing in the weapons authority. "Of course, we have to look at this in order to be able to draw conclusions from possible mistakes." Most recently, the weapons authority had been accused of not having looked intensively enough for a book written by Philipp F. during the online research on the later gunman.

In the book, the 35-year-old expressed, among other things, confused religious theses in connection with the Holocaust. Two months before the crime, an anonymous whistleblower had drawn attention to a possible mental illness and dangerousness of the 35-year-old and cited the book as evidence.

On Sunday, the victims of the rampage will be commemorated in an ecumenical event in the main church of St. Petri in Hamburg. The Jehovah's Witnesses support the funeral service, but want to go their own way for a funeral service according to their Christian principles.