In this image taken from video made available by ATV-Studio Halle, a man shoots from a long-barreled gun, in Halle, Germany, October 9, 2019. (ATV-Studio via AP)
The German man suspected of killing two people near a synagogue on Wednesday reportedly told investigators that he received approximately $800 from an anonymous online donor prior to the attack.
The German publication Der Spiegel reported Friday that the accused, Stephan Balliet, had received the money in the form of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin from an unknown person with whom he communicated on the internet, according to his defense attorney Hans-Dieter Weber.
Weber also told the publication that Balliet denied being a neo-Nazi in his interrogation by German authorities. Balliet claimed to have acted alone and made the weapons used in the attack himself from cheap materials.
Balliet is accused of an attack on a synagogue in the city of Halle, in eastern Germany. He tried to forcefully enter the synagogue but was stymied by its locked doors. He then turned his gunfire on a woman outside and a man in a nearby kebab shop, killing both.
Stephan Balliet, the suspect in the Halle shooting, gets out of a helicopter at the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe, southern Germany, October 10, 2019. (Uli Deck/dpa/AFP)
He filmed and live-streamed the 35-minute assault as he raved at Jews and denied the Holocaust. He also published an online manifesto expressing anti-Semitic sentiments.
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