89 year-old mass shooting suspect ‘opened fire in social security office after losing pension case’
An 89-year-old man suspected of rampaging through Athens with a shotgun has been arrested, more than 200km away from the mass shooting, and following a major manhunt.
The pensioner, identified locally as a garbage collector from the Athens area, was picked up by police in Patra around 4.30pm local time, some six hours after the first reports of an attack on a social security office in the city.
He was arrested carrying a loaded .38 revolver at a hotel this afternoon, after fleeing the capital, local media reported. Police are yet to confirm a motive, but local reports say the suspect had lost a court case regarding the awarding of his pension, citing unnamed sources.
The gunman initially opened fire at a branch of the National Social Security Fund (EFKA) in Kato Petralona on Tuesday morning, wounding an employee in the leg, police said.
Alexandros Varveris, head of EFKA, later said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund’s offices in the Kerameikos area of c..
