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CRIME

Jealous ex behind Bayreuth triple killing

Police have said that a 41-year-old man was behind three deaths in Bayreuth, northern Bavaria late on Sunday evening, shooting his ex-girlfriend, her father, and himself.

Published: 21 December 2015 08:48 CET
Updated: 21 December 2015 12:40 CET
Jealous ex behind Bayreuth triple killing
Forensics officers on the scene of the shootings late on Sunday night. Photo: DPA

The man brought his pistol to a car park in the sleepy St. Johannis district on the edge of the city, which is better known for its annual festival of Wagner operas than for violence.

There he opened fire, killing the 33-year-old woman and her 65-year-old father and wounding her new boyfriend, 32, before turning the weapon on himself.

Despite his injuries, the wounded younger man was able to flee from the attacker before being taken into the care of police officers as they rushed towards the scene. He is being treated in hospital and is not in mortal danger.

In a statement released early on Monday afternoon, police said that the killer owned the Czech-made Ceska pistol legally under a hunting license.

State prosecutors in Bayreuth have ordered autopsies on all three bodies, while a number of vehicles that were struck by bullets are also being examined.

Police are questioning people close to those involved and otherwise continuing their inquiries.

SEE ALSO: Passengers beat taxi driver nearly to death

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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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