Munich police blame 'chaos' for false statements about attack suspect
Police in Munich on Friday sought to justify why false information was given the public about the perpetrator of the car attack by pointing to the "chaos" of the initial investigation.
Just hours after the man deliberately rammed his car into a trade union rally in central Munich, senior officials such as Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann made several inaccurate statements about the Afghan suspect's legal status in Germany.
Christian Huber of Munich police headquarters told journalists at a press conference on Friday that during the "chaos phase" of the investigation in the immediate aftermath of the attack, a lot of information had been "virulently" circulated.
"It takes a certain amount of time to get a picture [of what happened]," Huber said, arguing that it is understandable that people could make mistakes.
Officials falsely stated that the man had a criminal record for shoplifting. In fact, the man worked in retail security and had been cited as a witness and complainant in a number of such cases.
People evidently saw his name attached to those court cases and, without further checks, incorrectly assumed that he was a defendant - rather than a police witness - in these cases, Huber said.
He said that while the information came from "police files," it is unclear to him who had communicated with whom and how.
Herrmann and others also falsely suggested that the man, whose asylum application had been rejected, had been obliged to leave Germany and had only stayed because authorities had been unable to deport him to Afghanistan.
Authorities now say he obtained valid residency and work permits after his asylum application was rejected.
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