Status: 02/01/2022 3:13 p.m
After the deadly shots at two police officers, the two suspects are in custody. A judge issued an arrest warrant for communal killing, investigators said. They assume poaching as a motive.
One day after the murder of two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate, the public prosecutor’s office and the police commented on the investigation. Arrest warrants have been issued for both suspects and they are in custody.
The 38-year-old and the 32-year-old were therefore traveling with a van to poach. During the check, both police officers found a large number of wild animals in the vehicle.
Apparently both fired
Investigators believe both suspects fired shots. The motive is assumed to be that the previous poaching should be covered. A shotgun and a hunting rifle were seized during the investigation.
The 24-year-old police officer was shot in the head, the investigators said. The 29-year-old chief inspector was hit with four shots, one in the head. He himself shot 14 times. The 24-year-old police candidate, who was at the end of her training, was unsuspecting, she may have held a flashlight and the papers in her hand and did not shoot. The civilian vehicle in which she and her colleague were traveling is not usually used for traffic controls.
Partial confession: poaching admitted
Early Monday morning, the police candidate and the chief inspector were shot dead during a traffic check on a district road in the Palatinate near the district town of Kusel. According to information from security circles, the officials had previously reported by radio that dead game had been found in a vehicle. Later they reported “They are shooting”.
According to the public prosecutor, the 32-year-old suspect admitted to poaching and described the police control and the shots. But he denied having shot himself, said chief prosecutor Stefan Orthen. He is already known to the police for fraud offenses.
The 38-year-old – apparently a friend – was already known to the police for hunting poaching and traffic accident escapes. So far he has exercised his right to remain silent.
Weapons confiscated
The arrests of the suspects were followed by house searches, during which a large arsenal of weapons was seized. It was said that five handguns, a repeating rifle, ten other long guns, a crossbow and a silencer and ammunition were found in Spiesen-Elversberg in Saarland. Investigators assume that the 38-year-old suspect had access to the weapons.
The German Hunting Association said the 38-year-old was not in possession of a valid hunting license. According to the current state of knowledge, the responsible authority in Saarland rejected his application for a new hunting license due to lack of reliability. The association was appalled by the “cold-blooded police murder” and called on the authorities to quickly clarify where the murder weapons came from and how they came into the suspect’s possession.