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Cop confesses to murder of girlfriend and son

A police officer from Vienna has confessed to shooting dead his pregnant girlfriend with his service weapon and strangling their son.

Published: 10 October 2016 08:02 CEST

Cop confesses to murder of girlfriend and son

The apartment building in Vienna where the couple lived. Photo: ORF

The 23-year-old, named only as Daniel L., was interrogated for several hours over the weekend and confessed to killing his 25-year-old partner Claudia and their child on October 2nd.

He shot her with his service pistol, which he was not supposed to take home with him. He admitted that contrary to the rules he often took his gun home and kept it in a box.

He said that after shooting Claudia, he then strangled their one-year-old son, who was in the next room. He put the two bodies in the trunk of his car and three days later drove to Styria.

He told detectives that he had been fighting with his partner for several months and that she had physically attacked him and imprisoned him in their apartment.

He said that on the day of the murders he had wanted to end the relationship, and that he had fought with her over this in their shared apartment in Vienna’s Margareten district. He then shot her.

Daniel L. had been working with the Vienna state police department since January 1st. He reported his girlfriend and son as missing last Monday night. He told police that she had left the apartment together with their toddler, taking a bag of the boy's clothes with her, and that he had not seen her since.

His girlfriend, originally from Klagenfurt, was six months pregnant. A friend of hers wrote an appeal on Facebook, asking people to help find her.

On Tuesday the man called his boss to say that he was sick and drove to his parents’ house in Styria. He buried the two corpses in a meadow, not far from the home where he grew up.

When police searched the couple’s flat in Vienna for clues as to the whereabouts of the missing woman they found traces of blood. The suspect was arrested in Styria and confessed shortly after.

Daniel L.’s colleagues described him as friendly and committed to his job.

Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations.

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria.

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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