Zurich Mosque Shooter Not a Terrorist But Occultist, Say Police

Zurich police said a man who opened fire at a mosque on Monday, killing three, was an occultist on a killing spree who had already stabbed to death an acquaintance before the shooting.

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Police said “there is no evidence of an Islamist-motivated act or a connection between the perpetrator and the [Islamic State].”

Authorities said a 24-year-old Swiss man of partial Ghanian descent walked into the prayer room of the Islamic Center at the Eisgasse in Zurich and opened fire, wounding three people — a 56-year-old Swiss person and two Somalis, 30 and 35 years old — before fleeing. The suspect’s body was later found by a passer-by near Zurich’s main railway station on the banks of the Sihl, dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound.

The suspect has been tied through DNA to a 24-year-old man from Chile who “had been the victim of a violent crime,” whose body was found on a playground Sunday morning.

The mosque victims are stable with non-life-threatening wounds, police said.

Chief of police Christiane Lentjes Meili told reporters today that “there were indications that the perpetrator was interested in occult topics” as “corresponding symbols have been found at his home.”

Lentjes Meili said the man was licensed to carry a firearm and had quit his job at a shop on Friday. He lived alone.

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