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CRIME

Police arrest teenage son of shot family

The teenager whose entire family was found shot dead in their home on Friday was detained on Saturday evening, suspected of killing them with his friend.

Published: 12 April 2009 09:25 CEST
Police arrest teenage son of shot family
Photo: DPA

The 18-year-old himself went to the police on Friday to report having found his mother, father and two adult sisters dead in their house in Eislingen, Baden-Württemberg.

Although police initially described the killings as mysterious and that they were not ruling out the involvement of an outside party, they soon focussed on the son of the family.

He had told them he had spent Thursday night at the house of a friend and returned home on Friday to find his family murdered.

But police spokesman Rudi Bauer said there were no signs of a break-in at the house where the four were killed – and that nothing had been stolen.

The teenager was also “very taciturn and withdrawn” during questioning, Bauer added.

He is a member of the local shooting club, although does not have a licensed weapon. The small-calibre handgun used to kill the family has not yet been found.

He and his 19-year-old friend were brought before a judge in Ulm on Saturday evening, who decided to detain them in investigative custody while investigations continue.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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