Hamburg
Man with hammer – Lower Saxon comes before judge
The police do not believe that the crime is related to the European Football Championship. Photo
© Bodo Marks/dpa
Near the Reeperbahn, a 39-year-old man threatened with a hammer and was shot by police officers. The man has since left the hospital. The judge’s decision is now pending.
The man who threatened with a hammer and a Molotov cocktail on Sunday in Hamburg-St. Pauli and was shot by police is to be brought before a judge on Monday. The judge will decide in the course of the day what the man will be charged with, said Hamburg’s senior public prosecutor Liddy Oechtering told the German Press Agency on Monday that the accusation of attempted murder is currently being raised. In addition, the judge must decide whether the man should be temporarily placed in a clinic or remanded in a detention center.
According to police statements on Sunday, the German may have acted in a state of psychological emergency.
The 39-year-old man from Buchholz in Lower Saxony is no longer in hospital. He was released on Monday morning. His apartment in Buchholz was searched on Sunday at the request of the public prosecutor’s office. Documents were seized. The investigation into the motive for the crime is still ongoing. One thing is clear, however: “There is no connection to organized football violence,” Oechtering continued.
Pepper spray didn’t stop him
According to the police, the man had come out of a snack bar on Silbersackstrasse on Sunday afternoon. He had approached passers-by and police officers in a threatening manner, carrying a slate hammer, which is usually used by roofers, and a Molotov cocktail. The police had previously said that he had used a pickaxe as a weapon. He did not respond to police instructions, and even the use of pepper spray did not stop him. The officers finally fired. No police officers or innocent third parties were injured.
Shortly before the incident, there was a march with about 13,000 Dutch fans in the St. Pauli district because of the European Championship match between the Netherlands and Poland.