Cologne
Former CDU politician shoots young man – three and a half years in prison
Rheinufer in Cologne: The four of us drank something and listened to music
© Oliver Berg / DPA
In Cologne, shortly before New Year’s Eve 2019, a CDU local politician insulted a young man and shot him in the shoulder. Now the 74-year-old man has to go to prison for three years.
A former CDU politician from Cologne who shot a young man has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The Cologne district court found him guilty of dangerous bodily harm in unity with a violation of the gun law and insult. The 74-year-old German showed a “xenophobic attitude”.
The defendant had admitted the shot at the now 22-year-old by his defense lawyers on the first day of the hearing, but had it shown as an accident. After eight days of hearing, 20 witnesses and three expert reports, the court came to a different conclusion. Accordingly, the 74-year-old fired “a targeted shot in the direction of the upper body” of his victim.
Alcohol and music on the banks of the Rhine
The then 20-year-old had drunk alcohol and listened to music on the night of the crime with three companions on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne’s Porz district in the immediate vicinity of the defendant’s property. When the defendant took his dog out in the garden, he started an argument with the young men and insulted them as “filthy people” or “filthy foreigners”. The court ruled that the 74-year-old had displayed a “xenophobic attitude”. The defendant had denied racist slurs against his defense lawyers.
The prosecution had asked for three years and nine months in prison. In his closing lecture, the prosecutor had spoken of a “malicious and perfidious” act because the defendant asked the 22-year-old with a gun in his hand: “Come to my property, then I’ll shoot you.” Neither in his statement, read by the defense attorney on the first day of the trial, nor in his last word, the defendant showed a sign of regret. His defense pleaded for acquittal and described the 22-year-old co-plaintiff as a “con man and a liar”. The judgment is not final, an appeal can be filed.