The 45-year-old suspect in a mass shooting at a mother-and-child centre in northern Germany that killed six people in June has died by suicide in prison, Lower Saxony’s justice ministry said on Tuesday.
The man had been arrested shortly after the attack in Stade, where he had gone to discuss custody of his three-month-old daughter.
Prison staff found him early in the morning during a routine check at Bremervörde Prison, the ministry said. He was described as having no body heat, and an emergency doctor pronounced him dead less than 30 minutes later.
The cause of death was identified as strangulation. The ministry said the evidence currently available points to suicide and that there were no signs of third-party involvement.
An investigation has been opened into the exact circumstances of his death. Relatives of both the dead man and the shooting victims have been informed.
On the day of the attack, the suspect had arranged to meet several of the victims to discuss custody of his infant daughter, who was at the shelter with her mother. It remains unclear whether the mother and child were living there.
Both survived without injury. Four women and two men were killed, all of them social workers involved in child protection.
Police said in late June that the suspect was a Turkish citizen born in Germany who lived in Hanover, about 200km to the south.
He was known to police, including over threats, but was not considered violent and did not hold a firearms licence.
