Baden-Wuerttemberg
Shots fired at FDP local politicians in Hattenhofen
The town hall of Hattenhofen in Baden-Württemberg. A local politician was shot in the village on Sunday night. photo
© Julian Rettig/dpa
Shots are fired in the middle of the night in the municipality of Hattenhofen in the foothills of the Alps, and an FDP local politician is injured. But even a day later, numerous questions remain unanswered.
After the shots were fired at an FDP local politician, disbelief reigns in the small community of Hattenhofen in Baden-Württemberg. According to the police, the 65-year-old was shot through the window in his apartment early on Sunday morning. The district councilor was seriously injured and already operated on, but he is not in mortal danger, the prosecutor said.
Almost all other questions are still unanswered more than 24 hours after the act of violence. With a special commission, the criminal police are trying to evaluate the clues. It remains completely unclear so far whether the district council has become a target because of its political work or whether there is a completely different motive for the shots on the remote farm between Zell and Hattenhofen. There was still no trace of the shooter on Monday. The special commission is also examining a possible connection to other shots that had been fired in other places in the past few weeks.
In Hattenhofen, the dismay is great: “The people here are stunned and appalled, but they have also become thoughtful and afraid,” said Jochen Reutter, the mayor of the approximately 3,000-strong community in the Göppingen district, the German Press Agency. “We live in a tranquil region. And now something unthinkable has become reality.”
Göppingen’s District Administrator Edgar Wolff was also “deeply concerned and shocked by this act of violence” in a letter to the members of the district council. FDP faction leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke told the dpa: “I am appalled by the terrible news.” His thoughts are now with the local politician and his family.
The shots are reminiscent of other incidents in recent weeks. In Stuttgart, a man was shot and seriously injured by unknown persons in front of a restaurant in the Zuffenhausen district on Friday evening. Also in Plochingen and Eislingen people were shot at by unknown persons.