crime
Suspect identified for quadruple murder in Solingen
A white rose on a barrier beacon in front of the scene of the fire in Solingen on March 27th. photo
© Christoph Reichwein/dpa
Two weeks after the fire in Solingen in which a family of four died, investigators have identified a suspect. He is said to have tried to scalp a person on Monday.
Two weeks after the devastating fire with four deaths The Solingen police have identified a suspect. He is suspected of quadruple murder, as investigators in Wuppertal reported.
The 39-year-old is said to have tried to kill someone again 14 days later by attacking a 44-year-old man with a machete and critically injuring him. The investigators spoke of four scalping attempts. The bloody act is said to have been preceded by a dispute over a failed drug deal.
Because of the machete attack, an arrest warrant for attempted murder has already been issued against the 39-year-old. The German had previously only been noticed for minor crimes such as embezzlement and theft. There is no concrete evidence of mental illness.
Surveillance cameras provide clues to the perpetrator
When investigators searched his apartment after the machete attack, they found incriminating material in the quadruple murder case. The 39-year-old is said to be a former tenant in the back building of the fire house who was evicted after a dispute with his landlady.
He was filmed by surveillance cameras near the crime scene at the time of the crime and showed unusual behavior. He was wearing white shoes, a backpack and a hat. He was the only one the cameras filmed at the time of the crime. So he moved several times in the direction of the later fire house. Shortly afterwards the fire broke out, in which four people died and eight were injured. Video recordings later discovered further away from the crime scene would have made identification possible.
Experts discovered traces of accelerant in the wooden stairwell. In addition, a motion detector was “covered”. The search of his apartment by special forces had been prepared at the time of the machete attack and had been approved by the court a few hours before.
No evidence of xenophobia
In addition to a small cannabis plantation, incendiary agents were also found in the house where he lived. The motive for the murderous arson is unclear. The trace evaluation is ongoing. The accused remains silent about the allegations.
There is no evidence of xenophobia as a motive for the crime. Although one witness claimed to have heard the exclamation “Sieg Heil” during the machete attack, other witnesses and the victim himself contradicted this. The investigation also did not indicate that the suspect had right-wing extremist views; he was more likely to sympathize with a “centre party”.
Prosecutors said there was no rush to issue an arrest warrant for quadruple murder. The investigation is still in its early stages and the suspect is in custody anyway.
A family from Bulgaria who lived in the attic was unable to save themselves on the night of the fire on March 25th. The 28 and 29 year old parents and two girls aged three and a few months were killed.
The crime has been “largely solved,” said Wuppertal police chief Markus Röhrl. It is a “thorough investigative success”. The fire that killed four people brought back bad memories of the racist attack that killed five people in Solingen in 1993. At that time, five women and girls of Turkish origin died after right-wing extremists set fire to a residential building.